Reckitt, formerly RB, under the Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign has collaborated with WhiteHat Jr to launch a unique digital scholarship program called WhiteHat Jr Swasth Bharat Tech Champs Program to inspire children in the age group of 6-18 years to reimagine health and hygiene solutions that impact all human touch-points from personal to domestic and from the community to the environment. An open-to-all contest vetted by E&Y will invite Indian students aged 6-18 years to reimagine solutions for age-old hygiene-related issues, which are still very much relevant amid COVID 19.
The top 50 shortlisted students will get an INR 50,000 scholarship from Reckitt. The six-month campaign will be executed in three phases:
- Open to idea submissions (April 12-May 13, 2021)
- Mentorship of top 200 submitted ideas by experts from WhiteHat Jr to help them fine-tune the idea and prepare the participants for the development of mobile applications
- Winner selection of top 50 students
“The current generations’ association with technology is unimaginable, it has become their primary medium to connect, engage and express over critical issues,” said Mr. Gaurav Jain, Senior Vice President, Reckitt South Asia. “With the unprecedented pandemic changing the way we live, eat, behave and socialize in our everyday lives, focus on health and hygiene has become paramount. Our collaboration with WhiteHat Jr is an effort not only to find immediate solutions to pressing needs of health and hygiene but also to make this a lifetime priority for them. We are excited to see the creative solutions they come up with to help spread the messages and make hygiene a habit.”
“Children are naturally creative and empathetic and since they aren’t predisposed to an existing concept or bound by the constraints of what’s doable, the solutions end up being genuinely innovative,” said CEO and Founder of WhiteHat Jr Karan Bajaj. “This initiative is a real-life manifestation of the mission of WhiteHat Jr to make children creators rather than being passive consumers of technology.”
