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Reckitt’s Diarrhoea Net Zero Future: Reaching 1.4 Million Rural Households In Fight Against The Disease
Reckitt is driving grassroots health transformation in India through large-scale hygiene, sanitation and child health initiatives aligned with the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision
New Delhi: Reckitt is scaling up its health and hygiene initiatives to contribute to the government’s vision of Viksit Bharat by 2047. Through programmes targeting hygiene, sanitation, self-care and child health, Reckitt aims to reduce the health divide between developed and underdeveloped regions of India. “Our focus is on ensuring that the most backwards blocks are brought on par with more developed regions. We plan to continue Hygiene Olympiads to take it to 50 million children. Our emphasis is also on gamification, investing in cultural nudges to make programmes relevant with time, using generative AI,” said Ravi Bhatnagar, Communications and Corporate Affairs Director, South Asia, MENARP and Africa, Reckitt.
One of Reckitt’s flagship health initiatives is the Diarrhoea Net Zero (DNZ) programme. Operational in Uttar Pradesh, it aims to eradicate diarrhoea-related deaths among children under five. Ravi Bhatnagar further said,
Diarrhoea remains one of the leading causes of child mortality in India, despite being entirely preventable. Recognising this, Diarrhoea Net Zero (DNZ) was launched under Dettol Banega Swasth India in collaboration with Jagran Pehel, with the ambitious goal of achieving net zero diarrhoea-related deaths among children under five in Uttar Pradesh.
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Between 2023 and 2024, the initiative made a measurable impact by directly engaging 1.4 million households, training 30,000 Gulabi Didis as community health leaders, distributing 14,000 life-saving kits and preventing over 69,000 diarrhoea cases. This intervention led to an estimated economic impact of Rs 12.6 crore and was recently recognised at the 7th ICC Social Impact Awards 2025 with special jury appreciation in the healthcare category.
Despite its successes, Reckitt’s programmes face several on-ground implementation challenges, especially in remote and underserved areas. Ravi Bhatnagar said,
One of the biggest challenges is the delay in seeking care due to low awareness about diarrhoea symptoms and treatment among caregivers.
To address this, the company has empowered local women, dubbed Gulabi Didis, who conduct door-to-door outreach to educate families about early symptom recognition, handwashing and the importance of Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS) and zinc therapy. He further said,
Access to healthcare facilities in remote areas is another challenge. So, we have established community-based ORS and zinc distribution points in high-risk areas, ensuring immediate access to life-saving treatment. The company is also working to strengthen supply chains and ensure the consistent availability of essential medicines. Many public healthcare centres are overburdened, with shortages of ORS, zinc, and antibiotics. To address this, Reckitt has worked to strengthen supply chain management… Additionally, we are collaborating with private healthcare providers to build their capacity.
Beyond healthcare, Reckitt’s Dettol Banega Swasth India has created over 34 billion handwashing occasions annually and engaged more than one million schools with a structured hygiene curriculum. Ravi Bhatnagar highlighted Reckitt’s goal of ensuring that children have less absence in school due to the health problems.
Our goal is to reduce absenteeism by 45 per cent by ensuring that children practice proper handwashing and sanitation habits.
Contextualising The Challenge
India was the first country to introduce ORS through a national programme, recognising it as a major step towards diarrhoea management. In 2014, the Government of India launched the Stop Diarrhoea Campaign, reinforcing the WHO 7-Point Plan with a bold aim: zero child deaths due to diarrhoea. Yet, challenges remained. While ORS reached only 34.2 per cent of affected children, zinc adoption was as low as 1 per cent, often due to lack of awareness, poor taste and confusion about usage.
Reckitt saw an opportunity to change this. Drawing on successful global public health models, the company developed a detailed approach through a Public-Private-Patient Mix.
It is also participating in the government’s Aspirational Blocks Programme and currently works in 100 underserved regions with plans to expand to 500.
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NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. 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 – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In a world post COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) 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, fight malnutrition, mental well-being, 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 like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.