New Delhi: Dettol Banega Swasth India, Reckitt’s flagship health and hygiene campaign, has been working to make hygiene a part of everyday life, especially for children. The campaign focuses on a simple idea: better hygiene can help prevent infections and build healthier communities. Through school programmes, hands-on activities and awareness sessions, it aims to turn basic hygiene lessons into habits that children can follow at school and at home. A key part of this effort is the Dettol School Hygiene Education Programme, which teaches children about personal hygiene, handwashing, sanitation and clean surroundings. Instead of limiting these lessons to books, the programme uses interactive sessions, games and practical activities to help children understand why hygiene matters and how they can follow it in their daily lives.
The programme recently took centre stage at Municipal Corporation Primary School (MCPS) Amberhai in Dwarka, Delhi, where Reckitt’s global leadership team visited the school on October 7. The visit offered a closer look at how Dettol Banega Swasth India is bringing hygiene education to life and helping children learn through experience.
Reckitt’s Global Leadership Visits MCPS Amberhai
The visit brought together Reckitt CEO Kris Licht, senior company leaders, members of the Dettol Banega Swasth India programme’s governing council and public health experts. The school, which has more than 600 students, served as a working example of how hygiene education can become part of the school experience.
The day began with a welcome by students, who greeted the delegation with flowers, tilak and a welcome song. The guests then met the school administration and programme representatives before taking part in a walkthrough of the school’s hygiene learning activities.
Speaking about the importance of teaching children about hygiene, Kris Licht, CEO of Reckitt, said, “At Reckitt, we believe in better health and more hands-on experience. Around the world, that’s what we do. And for us, health means hygiene. We can’t have health without hygiene. To teach the kids about this is so important, and we know this works.”
Making Hygiene Learning More Interactive
One of the key parts of the visit was the Hygiene Building as a Learning Aid (H-BaLA), an initiative launched by Dettol Banega Swasth India in 2025. It turns school spaces into interactive learning areas where children can explore hygiene concepts through play and hands-on activities.
At MCPS Amberhai, the visiting team saw how the programme uses different methods to make lessons easier to understand. In a classroom session, younger students learnt the steps of handwashing, the items needed to wash their hands and why clean hands are important.
Another classroom hosted a folk puppet show that used traditional storytelling, music and characters to share messages about hygiene. The activity also gave traditional puppetry a place in school learning, helping introduce children to an art form while teaching them healthy habits.
At the Hygiene Activity Centre, students took part in practical exercises using building blocks, soap-making activities, model toilets and hygiene games. They could build a model handwashing station, shape soap and assemble a toilet model to understand the basics of safe sanitation.
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Public Health Experts Stress The Importance Of Handwashing
Handwashing was another key focus of the visit. The programme teaches children a six-step handwashing routine and gives them the chance to practise it at the school’s handwashing station.
Padma Shri Dr Indira Chakravarty, public health specialist and environmentalist, underlined how this simple habit can help prevent infections. She said,
As a public health person, I would always say that to prevent diseases, to reduce infections, hand washing is the most important method of keeping yourself healthy. Please wash your hands after you touch any external object, including different parts of your own body.
Padma Shri Sai Damodaran, Founder and CEO of Gramalaya, also stressed the need to wash hands with soap at important times during the day. He said,
All should wash their hands with soap at crucial hours, particularly after using the toilet, before feeding the children, before taking food, they should wash their hands with soap. That is why we are giving hygiene education for the school children, particularly the hand washing techniques, how to wash their hands with soap (and how to use the toilet facilities and the judicial usage of water.
Two New Initiatives Focus On Cleanliness And Sanitation
The school visit also marked the launch of two initiatives: the Divya Washing Machine, a Reckitt Catalyst initiative, and the Safe Hygiene and Sanitation Accelerator. The Divya Washing Machine is a portable, off-grid machine that can wash seven kilograms of clothes in around 30 minutes. According to the programme briefing, it can reduce washing time by 75% and water use by 50% compared with handwashing clothes. At the school, it supports the Bag-Free Wednesday initiative, under which children bring their dirty uniforms instead of school bags and receive clean uniforms by the end of the school day.
The Safe Hygiene and Sanitation Accelerator, meanwhile, focuses on improving school sanitation and supporting sanitation workers. Its pilot launch at the school included the handover of two bikes to sanitation workers, helping them carry out their work. The initiative also includes scheduled cleaning, supervision, suitable equipment and checks to help keep school toilets clean and functional.
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Building Healthier Habits From School To Home
The visit ended with a handwashing demonstration, bringing the day’s activities back to one of the programme’s most important messages: small actions can make a difference when practised regularly.
Through classroom lessons, folk performances, hands-on activities and better sanitation support, Dettol Banega Swasth India aims to make hygiene easier for children to understand and practise. The larger goal is to help them carry these habits beyond school and into their homes and communities.
