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Highlights Of Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat Telethon- Leaving No One Behind
NDTV and Dettol have been jointly working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. In the eighth year, 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.
Here are the highlights of Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat Telethon with Amitabh Bachchan:
Dettol curriculum is in 75% of all primary schools in India: Laxman Narasimhan, CEO, Reckitt
On technology this team has the big ambition of tripling the impact. We have to focus on prevention. Technology provides an amazing opportunity for us. On prevention what we are doing with technology are three points - if I look at information and we have expertise, we are infusing information into vernacular languages through a variety of platforms. Second is trading of frontline. Third is school children. Dettol curriculum is in 75 per cent of all primary schools in India but that is not enough. The ambition to triple the impact is only possible through technology.
Gaurav Jain, Senior Vice President – South Asia, Reckitt on the work done so far and the plan for the future
Under the Banega Swasth India campaign, we have had a journey of seven years and we directly impact 50 million a year. In the next five years, we want to triple the impact and make it 150 million. We are in 650 thousand school. We are in madrasas and will cover all 9,000 of them. We want to clean waterways and do that in the next three years.
Under the Birds and bees programme - we reach 3 million today and want to reach 15 million that is all of north east. We plan to reach 7 million kids through white hat junior partnership. 10 million new mother through a partnership with UN women. In UP we are targeting diarrhoea under 5 and we will achieve that goal.
Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai talks about the learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic
Pandemic always gives us lot of lessons. The shortcomings of the government health infrastructure were exposed. We learnt health infrastructure is very important. Not only in terms of building equipment but human resources - doctors, nurses, lab experts as well. Second lesson we learnt is that pandemic is like a war-like situation. If community has to come together, then only we can face it bravely and squarely
Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister, Delhi on Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat telethon
In Delhi, education and health have been our priority sector. We formed the first government in 2015 and since then we started spending 25 per cent of the budget on education and 20 per cent on health. After witnessing the waves of Covid pandemic, I now wonder if we had not spent on health in the last six-seven years in the form of mohalla clinics, medical colleges, what the situation would have been during the pandemic. The money spent on health benefitted us during the pandemic.
Aaditya Thackeray, Environment Minister, Maharashtra Joind Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat telethon
We have been terribly hit by Covid. What we realised very soon is that it is a pandemic and numbers will be high. In that case, we have to be transparent with people and help them. Secondly, we trusted science. There was a lot of back and forth when do you go into lockdown. Go into a staggered manner and come out in a staggered manner. If you ask anyone in the state today, they know we are going by what science says.
'Extremely important to educate girls,' says Taapsee Pannu, Actor on Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat telethon
You have to start from the start. It is extremely important to educate girls. They should know their rights, what their real strength is. I identified that as a root cause from where it begins. I wanted to instill that confidence in them that they have the right on themselves. It is very important to impart education so that they know their right, their duties, and their expectations
Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister, Meghalaya Joins The Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat Telethon
"As a government we have always been empathetic towards people with disability & we feel that more needs to be done:" @SangmaConrad, Chief Minister, Meghalaya on the 12-hour #SwasthBharat, Sampann Bharat Telethon
- Banega Swasth India (@banegaswasthind) October 3, 2021
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/3oUB8q1RVX #BanegaSwasthIndia pic.twitter.com/MWu0ggrELh
N Biren Singh, Chief Minister, Manipur talks about how the Government of Manipur is pushing for inclusive development
"The government has taken up various initiatives to bring about inclusive development. I urge everyone to do their bit every day": @NBirenSingh, Chief Minister, Manipur on the 12-hour #SwasthBharat, Sampann Bharat telethon
- Banega Swasth India (@banegaswasthind) October 3, 2021
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/3oUB8q1RVX#BanegaSwasthIndia pic.twitter.com/fLyiWfeay8
Abhina Aher, Transgender activist, I-TECH India on the right of the members of the LGBTQIA+ community
We have been fighting for transgender rights for over two decades now. After various changes that has happened in India, we face a lot. In 2014, for the first time, we got a separate identity and were considered as the third gender. We are still struggling for inclusion. If you pick any news or data, you will see information how Covid has affected women. But you won't find any data on how Covid has affected transgender people. Trans people are seen begging on roads but these are the same people who helped police in implementing lockdown.
We have right to social welfare, good health and dignity. We are not talking about small universe. If you look at data for transgender, the last mapping was done in 2011. My community is extremely impacted. Transgender community is not just about hijara. That's an umbrella term. We have various identities like transmen, transwomen, etc.
Prince Manvender Singh Gohil, Founder, Lakshya talks about the initiatives undertaken by him during the Covid pandemic
One of the major challenges we have faced during the pandemic is that a lot of us are forced to be in our homes. To escape marriage pressure, we try to live independently but here we were forced to live with families and that led to parents harassing their children for marriage 24x7 and that led to a lot of mental health issues. I got calls of distress of which some people were contemplating suicide. For people below the poverty line, we managed to provide ration to the members of the community. We work for HIV-positive people as well. We provided them treatment at home. The Government of Gujarat also provided us help. You cannot stop treatment as it can have consequences.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, UNAIDS joins the Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat Telethon
Education is empowering for young people particularly so for young women and girls. We know we have had so many studies especially in India, just how education is a game changer for young girls - it prevents early marriage and early pregnancy. It gives girls right to be free of sexual violence. But education is alone not enough. You need to have comprehensive sexuality education which is often opposed by conservative forces. You need to take out toxic masculinity out of school space. It's important to keep all girls and boys in the school upto the end of secondary school. By keeping girls in school, they are less to suffer violence, she is able to control her fertility, she can earn that keeps her and her family safe and healthy. Complete education for girls has many outcomes for girls and her family.
People from rich societies don’t show up for justice against sexual abuse: Trisha Shetty, Founder, SheSays
For us, change is two step forward, five steps back. We had a case of child less than 10 years of age who had been raped and it took us over three years of running from police stations to courtrooms and helping the family on ground to get justice, to get a guilty sentenced and 10 year conviction. This is case of metropolitan city. The father of the victim said, the person who raped my child has sexually abused other children as well.
People from rich societies don't show up for justice. They believe 'ghar ki baat ghar me rehne do'. First thing is to own our truth. I am glad you are talking about inequality. Have these honest conversations and hold men in our own circle accountable. We need to unlearn things and hold our elected leaders to account to do better. Hold institutions to provide us justice, to ensure we are safe, to ensure you well safe walking down the street, make sure quality education.
When there is confusion, there can be frustration: Dilen Gandhi, Regional Marketing Director, South Asia, Health & Nutrition, Reckitt on lack of information and misinformation during the pandemic
Whenever we make any communication, we ensure there is an emotional connect. When the pandemic started, people were not sure what needs to be done. We decided to provide the right information to people. We realised that when there is confusion, there can be frustration. We converted the message into small videos and shared on social media. The campaign reached out to 350 million people. People created their own videos to spread the message.
In the second wave, everyone knew what needs to be done - handwashing, distancing, etc. this time we thought that hook for us should be hope. The stories of hope. We said that there is a message here that is not being spread out. How can we take this message. We took our handwash packs, dropped the logo and added stories of everyday people on it. we took 100 of stories. First, we did it online and then we made it physically available in 5 lakh stores. Later, we also set up a website where people could nominate their own heroes. I think stories were a way to express gratitude but also to create a sense of communal hope.
Ranjan Dora, Volunteer, IndiaShield talks about being a working and helping people during the second wave of COVID-19
The collective passion of absolute strangers coming together to save one life made me want to volunteer. We would see helplessness everywhere. Families were distressed and it only felt right to your do bit. It isn't something that you are used to doing or had planned to do ever. All of us were working restlessly finding beds, ambulances, etc and give them one tiny ray of hope. However, it would also mean witnessing death. How do you forget loss and continue helping people. Many of us would also get attached to families going through tough times.
I remember a mother of a 21-year-old boy with severe Covid screaming at me and saying, what are you doing Ranjan? When will we get an injection? Once I was asked to choose between two patients and provide ICU bed.
There is high level of satisfaction even when one life is saved. I had a breaking point when I lost a family member. At the same time, someone called me and screaming at me saying, I am standing outside with my mother and I will lose her if we don't get a bed. Eventually, he lost his mother.
Masaba Gupta and muppets share a tip to deal with mental stress
Meet Masaba Gupta's (@MasabaG) new friends #Chamki & #Elmo of @SesameWrkshpIND, together they share a tip to help deal with #MentalStress.
- Banega Swasth India (@banegaswasthind) October 3, 2021
Track LIVE updates from the 12-hour #SwasthBharat, Sampann Bharat telethon on https://t.co/3oUB8q1RVX #BanegaSwasthIndia pic.twitter.com/WGWUTTAbxS
Dr Prashant Saxena, Director & Head, Pulmonology & Sleep Medicine, Max Smart Hospital shares his experience of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic
Being a doctor I believe it is one of the most physically, emotionally and mentally demanding profession. This COVID-19 pandemic tested us. We were not fully prepared for the second wave. There was stress and anxiety. We were concerned about our family members so we were in quarantine regularly, living in different houses. In a lot of societies, doctors were discriminated. We lost a lot of doctors. There was burnout, insomnia, exhaustion. There was a time I was seeing over 100 patients a day. No time to sleep. But I think we still managed to do well to tackle the situation faced during the second wave.
Dr Anjali Chhabria, Psychiatrist, Director, Mind Temple Institute shares insights on mental health and mental wellbeing
October 3-10 is mental health week. I am happy that we are finally discussing psychiatric disorders. We need to give emotional health as much importance as we are giving to physical health. There is no health without mental health. We need governments to have programmes, going house to house and checking what's happening with people. senior citizens, healthcare workers have been affected. They might not know that they have been affected because on the surface they might seem normal. But we need to come up with strong mental health ambassadors to tell people that yes, if you have a problem, go and meet mental health professionals. Take medicine if you need. Don't shy away from taking medicines.
It is a very trying time for all of us, especially for the frontline workers: Captain Usha Banerjee, Director of Nursing, Apollo Hospitals
It is a very trying time for all of us, especially for the frontline healthcare workers. They are right there at the side of the bed of the sick and ailing. Many a times patients are left by their families. For the young doctors and nurses, it is really traumatic to see someone die. All healthcare workers have been put to stress and trauma. There is always this fear of the unknown; the impending fear. I think it calls for a different DNA to handle the mammoth task that we have on our hands. Young people coming to work without knowing what's in store for them, we salute them.
Fashion Designer and Actor Masaba Gupta talks about isolation during the Covid pandemic
Isolation is a very charming thing for the privileged but not a very happy experience for those who are not privileged. For me, the last two years have been liberating. As a small business owner, I had to think of my employees as well. We were working throughout the pandemic. I internalized and discovered so many things about myself as an entrepreneur and daughter. I had the privilege to feel liberated. I think we have become kinder to each other and more aware about mental health issues which is and was a taboo. Today people come and talk about mental health issues which were earlier pushed under the carpet. Today, girls and women are talking about their mental health issues and have set boundaries. Setting boundaries is a big part of mental health.
India has lost 95% of its vulture population: Abhishek Chaudhary, Member, One Health High Level Expert Panel
In 1990s vetenary doctors started giving a particular injection to cattle. So, when the cattle die and vulture feed on it, the component of that injection go in the vulture. This resulted in deaths of vultures. India has lost 95 per cent of its vulture population. Because vultures population decreasing, population of rodents increased and in turn we saw increase in the cases of rabies.
Also, if we look at our food consumption, rice and wheat are our staple but a lot of water is used to grow these. So, why don't we focus on coarse grains like maize which uses less water and fertilisers. The government needs to provide incentive for both consumption and production of such crop. We need to train and make young generation come and take up sustainable development. We have to nudge them to enter this sector.
'We have recorded a 68% decline in species of wildlife population since 1970', Highlights Ravi Singh, Secretary General & CEO, WWF India
If you look at it holistically, we need to act with certain amount of speed and some amount of direction with certain objectives. You see the living planet report of WWF, we have recorded a 68 per cent decline in species of wildlife population since 1970. There is need for speed in action, increased protection and conservation efforts. We need to produce and consume more sustainably. The message is that we cannot expect all actions only from government. We should hold our institutions, individuals and municipalities also responsible.
Manisha Patankar Mhaiskar, Principal Secretary, Environment & Climate Change, Maharashtra talks about how the state is planning to address the climate change
As soon as the United Nation's IPCC report came, we made a presentation to the cabinet and the cabinet is realising three things:
• Climate change is real
• Climate change is here
• The time to act is now
Our minister says that this is the last decade that anything meaningful could be done about climate change. Maharashtra council for climate change will be chaired by the Chief Minister. There are five sectors which need to act if we are thinking of carbon neutral future. First is decarbonizing out power which can be done by depening less on thermal power. Energy department will present their plan for this. We need to make our transport electric. Maharashtra has EV policy. We need to make our cities livable. We need to make our industries and agriculture sustainable.
Ravi Bhatnagar, Director External Affairs & Partnerships, South Asia, Reckitt on digital health records
As we have shifted from 'swachh India' to 'swasth India', it becomes more important to have digital health records. We have created AI-based chatbot. It is used by children in schools. Any question that you have growing up, you can ask. India has a large number of key population group impacted and affected by HIV. We have created an app, you have to answer 10 questions, it will tell you how much risk you have and the nearby health facility you can visit.
Digital recording of the cases is helpful. If there is a QR code, the doctor can know basic details, thus, saving time. For example, if a child had diarrhoea, how many times in the last 2 years.
Hygiene Buddy Kit - A Fun Way To Learn About The Importance of Hygiene
The #HygieneBuddy Kit by @ThisIsReckitt & @DettolIndia has multiple games for children that spreads awareness about hand #hygiene in a fun way.
- Banega Swasth India (@banegaswasthind) October 3, 2021
Watch the 12-hour #SwasthBharat, Sampann Bharat Telethon Live on NDTV network and https://t.co/3oUB8pKgxn #BanegaSwasthIndia pic.twitter.com/IA2ZKMcs9S
Trupti Mukker, CEO, WhiteHat Jr talks about the initiative that encourages children to apply coding for solving sanitation and hygiene problems
When we launched this initiative, we were very confident that children across India will be keen to use this platform. Each day of the competition, the number of ideas, problems children were trying to solve kept increasing. The length and breadth of the competition amazed us.
NDTV's Sanket Upadhyay learns some basic Bharatnatyam techniques to release stress at work
Watch @sanket get hands-on lessons in some basic Bharatnatyam techniques to release #stress at work from Suchitra Date, Psychologist, Bharatanatyam Danseuse & Social Worker on the #SwasthBharat, Sampann Bharat Telethon
- Banega Swasth India (@banegaswasthind) October 3, 2021
Watch LIVE: https://t.co/3oUB8q1RVX#BanegaSwasthIndia pic.twitter.com/sGyuxxoS4X
Aditi Hazra, Associate Epidemiologist, Brigham and Women's Hospital & Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical Schooll explains about Genome Sequencing
Genome sequencing is technology that we can use to understand the complete sequence and order of a virus. Humans have a 3 billion DNA basis. Virus has 30,000 RNA basis and they are represented as chemical ladders. As it spread from person to person, it was replicating itself. Occasionally it would make an error in that copy like a spelling error and that could have a different meaning. We saw that during spring surge. Delta variant is more transmissible and attaching to human more robustly. Although other variants are also emerging, sequencing allows us to track those.
Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Executive Chairperson & Founder, Biocon Joins Swasth Bharat, Sampann Bharat telethon
Technology is actually transferring the way we look at health in many ways. I am glad we are focusing on wellness and not just treating illness. The health of a nation can really improve if we focus on wellness. Now sensors are helping you to track the amount you exercise. Even during pandemic, we used an oximeter to check oxygen levels in the blood. We used so many devices to track our well-being. Today, a lot of technology-led solutions for health are approved by FDA. Technology is not only going to play an important role but is already playing in India where we have a huge deficit of medical infrastructure.