 "HUL Lifebuoy, GAVI to take 'Safal Shuruaat' campaign to Indonesia")
Hindustan Unilever Lifebuoy and GAVI are scaling up their partnership under the "Safal Shuruaat" campaign to take it to Indonesia, and it is expected to start there fully by next year, Madhusudhan Rao, executive director and general manager - South Asia (Beauty & Personal Care) at Hindustan Unilever told Business Standard.
"They are borrowing all the learnings from India, bringing in how handwashing with soap can make a difference to the health and how taking vaccines at the right time can prevent a number of diseases, improve quality of life and reduce under-five mortality," Rao said in a video interaction.
Highlighting the big size of the rural population, he added that the demography in Indonesia is not very different from India, making it easier for the model to get adopted there. The campaign will be run under the public-private partnership in Indonesia.
The "Safal Shuruaat" campaign was launched in 2017 in two districts of Uttar Pradesh, Allahabad and Hardoi. The main aim was to reduce under-five mortality by promoting handwashing with soap and timely immunisation using vaccines.
It uses activities like a 21-day handwashing monitoring chart and a snakes and ladders game to promote the above-mentioned tasks. Moreover, special sessions are conducted to improve the engagement of fathers of children aged between 0 and 2 years.
Rao said that the campaign now runs in 20 districts of the state and has touched over 3.8 million people. Since its launch, the participation of fathers in the everyday activities of their children has gone up by 42 per cent and 16 per cent for both immunisation-related tasks and hand hygiene responsibilities respectively.
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On being asked why Uttar Pradesh was chosen for the campaign, he said that the problem of under-five mortality is more severe there as compared to the national average.
"Uttar Pradesh is one of those states where the problem is more acute," he said. He added that as compared to the national under-five mortality rate of 42 per 1,000 live births, Uttar Pradesh has a much higher average of 60 per 1,000 live births.
He also added that they had held talks with several government agencies in India, including the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), and are hoping that they adopt and integrate the learnings into their existing programmes.
"If the government shows interest and says 'Yes, we want to do more of this', we would be very open to partnering," Rao said.