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On April 7, 2006, on the occasion of World Health Day, the Department of Posts released a special Lifebuoy 'Swasthya Chetna Postal Cover'. Lifebuoy, a leading soap brand from Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL), the Indian subsidiary of Unilever, became India's first brand to be featured on a postal cover. The Special Postal Cover was released in recognition of the work done by Lifebuoy and HLL to increase awareness of health and hygiene in rural India, through the Lifebuoy 'Swasthya Chetna' (LSC) initiative.
LSC was a five-year campaign launched in 2002 in eight states across India. The objective of this program was to educate around 200 million people in rural and urban areas about the importance of adopting good 'health and hygiene' practices. The program aimed to debunk the misconception that 'visibly clean is safe clean'.
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HLL's senior product manager for Lifebuoy, Harpreet Singh Tibb (Tibb) said, "People believe that 'visible clean' is 'safe' clean and hence tend to overlook simple hygiene practices such as washing hands with soap. But the fact is that there are invisible pathogens, which are responsible for many infectious diseases. We hence aim to educate people on the presence of invisible germs and raise concern on their consequences."
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LSC also spread awareness about germs and their adverse impact on health, and how proper 'health and hygiene' practices, such as bathing and washing hands with soap could prevent diseases like diarrhea, the second largest cause of death among children in India.
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The LSC program was implemented in various phases. In the initial phase, the company representatives interacted with schoolchildren and key influencers in the community like medical practitioners, Panchayat members, etc. People were educated through lectures, Glo-germ demonstrations, use of visual aids such as flip charts, and quizzes.
The program also used media vehicles like cinema vans, wall paintings, weekly markets, fairs and festivals. The program was later extended to the parents and other adults. The messages on health and hygiene were reinforced through regular contact programs. HLL also introduced a smaller bar (18 gram) of Lifebuoy soap priced at two rupees, to encourage people with low incomes to use soap. |
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