Dettol Banega Swasth India Strengthen and Democratize India's Fight on Maternal and Infant Mortality through Indigenous Women Changemakers - Gulabi Didis

• The program intervenes in the first 1000 days of the child's life and has created a substantial impact through enterprising solution created for woman and by the woman.

• The program has created impact year by year by offering solutions on creating sustainable change in health and hygiene patterns delivered by our trained and retrained woman warriors from the local indigenous population.

• REC to strengthen the nutritional status of pregnant women and children, inaugurates Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre in Chikaldhara block of Amravati.

With an objective to reach the last mile, Reach Each Child (REC) initiative inaugurated the Nutrition Rehabilitation Center (NRC) at Rural Hospital, Churni, Amravati (Maharashtra). Chief guests Smt Pavneet Kaur (IAS), District Magistrate, Amravati and Mr. Ravi Bhatnagar, Director, External Affairs & Partnership SOA, Reckitt, along with other dignitaries inaugurated the NRC. The effort is put together to reach out to PLAN India's goals to change lives of 20 million girls. REC is starting by supporting local tribes and people who face challenges in treatment seeking and is supported by GulabiDidis, REC Community Nutrition Warrior.

REC has created impact by offering solutions on creating sustainable change in health and hygiene patterns delivered by the trained and retrained woman warriors from the local indigenous population

Through the story of Community Nutrition Workers, programs strengthen its pillar of diversity and inclusion where these women from the villages has risen to take the responsibility of their own people and have saved countless number of lives throughout the evolution of program. These women are trained by experts on nutrition like Padmashree Dr Indira Chakravarty, ex IMA president Dr Narender Sainiand various other global experts.

These women hails from local tribes and orates the story of Bharat, where woman of Bharat from the local communities come together as a pack for their own community and ensure that no child die due to malnourishment and every woman have journey of a safe and healthy pregnancy.

During the keynote address, Ravi Bhatnagar, Director, External Affairs & Partnership SOA, Reckitt, said, "Mother and children should lead a healthy life and no child should die due to malnutrition, keeping this objective in front, our efforts and cooperation are always with the government, administration, and society. We want to narrate Bharat to Bharat story through our Gulabi didis who work tirelessly for their communities and with the help of good facilities and propagating best practices on health and hygiene, we support gulabididis to make a sustainable change in the communities towards health outcomes. We, at Reckitt invests to support indigenous woman network who strive to win over challenges of first 1000 days of child's life."

Plan India, in association with Reckitt, launched the Reach Each Child program in October 2018 and has developed cadre of community nutrition workers. With the help of this program, the mothers of Amravati and Nandurbar (Maharashtra) have been able to save their children's lives; they are practicing good hygiene, ensuring diet diversity and accessing services from public health services for their children and families.

Dr Indira Chakravarty, Padmashree Awardee, Public Health Specialist & Environmentalist said, "Being a woman, I have pledged to improve the determinants of health of the community, particularly the left-out ones and to reach out till the last mile. I personally believe that the Gulabididis are India's one of the most unique steps towards empowering woman to achieve equity in health. I have invested my time and will continue to do so to create an army of indigenous woman health crusaders so that no one is left behind."

The chief guests also distributed Reach Each Child new born baby kits to the mothers to help them take care of the child once they complete 14 days treatment from the NRC. The guests were welcomed traditionally by Jay Johara team from Dhande village. The inauguration was attended by Smt. Pavneet Kaur (IAS), District Magistrate, Amravati, Govt. of Maharashtra, Shri Ravi Bhatnagar, Director of, External Affairs &Partership SOA, Reckitt, Mr.Sawan Kumar (IAS), SDM, Dharani and Dr Dilip Saundale, Civil Surgeon, Amravati.

Commenting on the initiative, Smt. Pavneet Kaur (IAS), Collector and District Magistrate, Amravati, said, "I thank Plan India, Reach Each Child and Reckitt for their contribution towards renovating the NRC in RH Churni, one of the remote tribal villages of Melghat. I hope that this will aid in providing better services to the malnourished children in the region and act as a confidence building measure for the parents. It has already generated a moral boost for the doctors working in the challenging area. Thanks for working in the area where it is most needed."

Propagating the mission towards healthy and sustainable practices towards nutrition, foundation for kitchen Garden by planting a sapling by chief Guests, was laid at the proposed site of kitchen garden on the premises of Rural Hospital, Churni, Chikaldhara block at Amravati.

Dr Raj Bhandari, Member, National Technical Board of Nutrition and Health, NITI Ayog said, "In my decades of work in health sector, I have witnessed India has made good progress in reduction of IMR, MMR and U-5 mortality between NFHS-4 and 5. There is a huge role private sector and philanthropy can play to achieve greater impact. I am sure development partners like PLAN India will strengthen Government actions to improve health outcomes esp for the most disadvantaged groups. "

Dr Narender Saini, Ex-General Secretary, IMA said, "I have been supporting Reckitt's Dettol Banega Swasth since last 9 seasons and I am proud to be part and partner of this long and continuous journey towards health. 10^th season of Dettol Banega Swasth India will stand for democratizing primary healthcare for India."

Reach Each Child (REC) intervenes in the first 1000 days of the child's life and has created a substantial impact in Amravati and Nandurbar districts in Maharashtra. REC was initiated to improve the nutritional status by reducing stunting by 40% in children under five and keeping childhood wasting rates below 5%. Through its innovative voucher scheme that covers expenses of wage loss-treatment-transportation of Severe Acute Malnourished and High-Risk Pregnant Women. Furthermore, the project aimed to strengthen the nutritional status of pregnant women and children so as to improve the Human development index. The project has now scaled up to Rajasthan state.