DETTOL-NDTV BANEGA SWACHH INDIA” IN ASSOCIATION WITH URBAN DEVELOPMENT MINISTRY PLEDGES 1.15 HOURS FOR A CLEANER NATION

Media Brief

National, January 17, 2016

In its second edition, “Dettol-NDTV Banega Swachh India” in association with the Ministry of Urban Development, organised a 12-hour telethon, co-hosted by actor Amitabh Bachchan & NDTV’s Vikram Chandra to raise 1.15 crore towards this nationwide movement. In a first of its kind, this year the campaign is urging citizens and corporations to come forward and volunteer time towards to keep the nation cleaner and healthier. The initiative aims to spread awareness and empower citizens with better hygiene and sanitation facilities across the country. The 12-hour CLEANATHON was telecasted LIVE across the NDTV Network channels: NDTV 24x7, NDTV India, NDTV Profit and NDTV Goodtimes.

The campaign in its 2nd year has been focusing on devising & implementing ‘behavior change communication models’. For this, a 45-lesson hygiene curriculum & teacher-training module has been developed by Dettol in partnership with XSEED and Butterfly EduFields in 4 languages – Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu. In the first year, this curriculum will be used in 10,000 schools across the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Bihar and Tamil Nadu and aims to educate 2.5 million children. Secondly, a first of its kind Hygiene Index is being developed, which will provide a standard and holistic measurement of hygiene (personal, food and environmental hygiene, sanitation, safe water) in India, to influence policy decisions. The target is to cover 200 cities over a period of 3 years.

Therefore the aim for 2016 is 3-fold:

i. Focus on behavior change by taking a Hygiene Curriculum to schools and making 200 villages in open defecation free

ii. Acquiring ‘TIME’ & ‘COMMITMENT” pledges from people

iii. Measure impact through a first of its kind Hygiene Index

Endorsing the work done by the campaign, Venkaiah Naidu, Minister of Urban Development said, ‘Swachhta should be part of the curriculum being taught to children. Second important thing is to ensure that all schools, urban and rural, have toilets. The school authorities and parents' associations need to work together to ensure this”

It also brought together Nirmala Sitaraman, Commerce Minister, Harish Rawat, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand ,Devendra Fadnavis , Chief Minister of Maharashtra and corporates like Onno Ruhl, Country Head, World Bank, who feel strongly about the cause.

Speaking at the telethon, Onno Ruhl, Country Head, World Bank said “While achieving a Swachh India will require an incredibly large set of actions, each action is doable. He also congratulated the team for its efforts in raising awareness and mobilizing citizens at a large scale.

As a part of this initiative, clean-up drives were organized at multiple locations in Delhi, Varanasi, Bhubaneswar, Meerut, Raipur, Indore, Mumbai, Jaipur, Bhopal, Bangalore which were supported by mayors and city officials.

Speaking on the success of the campaign, Nitish Kapoor – Regional Director at RB South Asia said “Since launch in 2014, the Dettol-NDTV Banega Swachh India campaign has gained significant momentum in line with our objective to support the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. We have initiated two major behavior change programs – a comprehensive 45 lesson hygiene & sanitation curriculum for schools, and a local community led intervention to make villages Open Defecation Free. These programs have commenced in 10,000 schools and 200 villages and we hope to take them wider in collaboration with the central and state governments, and other partners. To progress this momentum to a sustainable national movement we are adding raising volunteer time to our objectives. We are very pleased to have raised over 1.15 crore hours – or over 1300 years of time – at the Cleanathon hosted by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan. This will go a long way in galvanizing mass public support for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan and we stand committed to scaling up the Banega Swachh India program even further with NDTV.”

The 12 hour telethon did not just spread awareness about the dismal sanitation situation in the country but also featured real efforts of those who have worked tenaciously towards the cause. In a first, the campaign urged citizens to come forward and pledge their ‘Time’ instead of donations towards a ‘Swachh India’

Hosted by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, and Vikram Chandra, Group CEO, NDTV, the Cleanathon featured some real life situations highlighting the problem of mindsets, ideas for change and everyday heroes who are fighting to make a difference.

Speaking on the occasion Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan said, “I want to thank everyone who participated in the Cleanathon and hope that every year the support will grow. This is not a personal agenda, this is a national agenda and if we all get together towards this cause, we can indeed achieve the dream of a Clean India.

The Cleanathon which aired from 9:00am to 9:00pm on January 17th, was a stimulating mix of in-studio interactions, entertainment acts, LIVE on-air ‘time’donations along with activation of all online & social media platforms. The event was top trending on Facebook & twitter for the entire day.

Speaking on the success of the Cleanathon, Vikram Chandra, Group CEO, NDTV said ‘ This was a unique effort by NDTV and Dettol asking everyone to pledge their time and we were overwhelmed by the response we received. We feel extremely encouraged by the support of the Ministry of Urban Development, Chief Ministers, school children, celebrities and citizens who came forward and helped to raise 1.15 cr hours dedicated to a Swachh India.

A host of prominent personalities including like Jaya Bachchan, Parineeti Chopra, Dia Mirza, Baba Ramdev, Niranjan Hiranandani and others joined Amitabh Bachchan and Vikram Chandra, who took centre-stage to appeal to millions of viewers to generate maximum hours for the cause.

Major contributions in terms of time were made from across the country in support of this cause. Significant contributions were made by the 25000 students of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Sunbeam Schools Varanasi etc. The largest contribution was made on behalf of the employees of the Maharashtra government with a pledge of 50 lakh hours.

The event also featured several enthralling performances by Kailash Kher, Amjad Ali Khan with Ayaan &Amaan Ali, Harshdeep Kaur, Mika Singh and Indian Ocean.

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan & Banega Swachh India in 2014 both worked towards actual building of toilets & creating awareness. The campaign raised a total of Rs 281 cr for the cause with prominent personalities like Sachin Tendulkar, Priyanka Chopra, Sonakshi Sinha, Arjun Kapoor and Govinda lending their support and making significant contribution

The Dettol-NDTV Banega Swachh India campaign aims to work towards a five year plan in accordance with Prime Minister Modi’s vision of making India a cleaner and healthier country by 2019.

For further information, please contact:

Rupal Gune

Email: rupal.g@prpundit.com