New Delhi: The biggest lesson that the COVID-19 pandemic taught the world was the crucial relationship between hygiene and health. The World Health Organization (WHO) has always emphasised on how hygiene practices, such as handwashing, can prevent diseases and viral infections like COVID-19. To inculcate hygiene practices among children, and ensure retention of what they learn Dettol Banega Swasth India launched Hygiene Play Parks, to combine physical games to drive home key messages about health and hygiene. The first park was launched last year in October, and the second park has just been launched at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.
Watch: “Dettol Hygieia”, A Mobile Game For Hygiene Education Launched
It is an inclusive safe space for children to engage in simple, fun, rooted culture games and reinforce critical preventive hygiene messages.
The park is for children of all age groups and has been created with environment-friendly materials like rope, wood, and non-toxic paints.
The model of the Hygiene Play Park is made in a way that is joyful, socially interactive, actively engaging, meaningful, and iterative. It is designed on five pillars of the Dettol Hygiene Curriculum: hygiene at home, hygiene at school, hygiene during illness, hygiene in the neighbourhood, and personal hygiene.
The Hygiene Play Park has four key components:
STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Junction: A designated and guided activity area equipped with materials for children to experiment and create hygiene solutions and new things.
Hygiene Games: The park has given a twist to the traditional games to teach hygiene practices to children, such as hopscotch, that showcase various hygienic practices. The park also has a wooden block pole puzzle that displays various aspects of personal hygiene.
Hygiene Essentials: A handwashing station and a sanitizer station have been installed for children to use once they enter the park. The stations have step-by-step displays of proper handwashing with soap or using a sanitiser.
Free Play Games: A trampoline and toddler jungle gym have been put under a fun play zone
A play area for children at the Hygiene park
STEM station at Dettol Hygiene Play Park
A handwashing station for children to use once they enter the park.
Dettol Hygiene Play Park
On of the students of the Hygiene park shared her experience,
The park provides us with multiple learnings on personal hygiene – importance of handwashing, brushing our teeth, bathing daily, cutting our nails, and much more. These way we can stay healthy and happy
Project Manager, Amit Shukhla said,
The park is designed for students in a manner that is educational. We have multiple games, such as Ludo, a strategy board game that showcases five levels of hygiene – hygiene at home, hygiene in school, hygiene in neighbourhood, personal hygiene and hygiene during illness. The STEM station, there are multiple play cards displaying proper ways of handwashing, brushing teeth, and so forth.
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – theLGBTQ population,indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fightmalnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health,adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workers andmenstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India wheretoiletsare used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
