A children’s park in Aragonda village, Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh, is a centre of attraction for local communities. Rural kids above 4 years flock here, along with parents, to play games and have fun in a healthy manner. Each game reminds them about the importance of cleanliness. Let’s ask Sonu, a six-year-old, who loves germs and ladder. If he chooses healthy habits, he gets to climb higher. If not, there are snake bites that lead to great falls. The other game he likes is the one where you can ring the worms and kill them.
There are more activities at the park that aim to inculcate healthy habits. Along with the kids, parents love to visit the park as it enriches their awareness about cleanliness. Known as the Dettol Hygiene Play Park, it is a first-of-its-kind initiative to promote play-based behaviour change around hygiene. “I come here daily. I enjoy it. The park is neat and clean. We don’t have such parks in our village or neighbouring areas. I have learnt to wash my hands before I eat anything,” Sonam says.
His friends admit that they don’t feel like going home, as the games are engrossing. They like the playful, beautiful and soothing environment. “I was not aware that washing hands is important. It is a simple thing which we ignore in day-to-day life because no one tells us about its benefits. But now, things have changed,” explains Sonam’s friend, an eight-year-old from Aragonda village.
There is no denying the fact that educating children about disease prevention through games and physical activities is among the most positive ways of inculcating healthy habits. Given this context, Apollo Foundation’s Total Health, a CSR initiative of Apollo Hospital, and Reckitt collaborated to create healthy communities by driving behaviour change among key stakeholders, especially children and teachers. The park was born out of this thought process in 2019.
What drove the two partners to work on a hygiene play park is that today, in post-Covid scenario, children face digital fatigue due to pandemic-enforced lockdowns and online learning. At the same time, as schools open up, the fears from the spread of virus intensify, and remain a worry. The lives of the children cannot be compromised. Anneysa Ghosh, CEO, Total Health, says, “It is the first play park in India that gamifies understanding of hygiene and sanitation messages. The idea is that cognitive growth is something we don’t take into consideration when we design interventions in rural areas.”
She adds, “It is an investment that pays dividends multiple times, and over the years. It is a beautiful space designed to make children come back again. Each time they play a game, they learn more.” Local leaders, social workers, parents, teachers and principals from neighboring areas heap praise on the efforts. The consensus is that the park will go a long way to create a healthy society.
K.V. Samantha Kumari, Headmaster, MPPS Patrapalli School, which is located near the park, highlights its importance and feels the need to have more of them, especially in rural areas. She explains, “There is a saying, ‘If I hear, I forget, if I see, I remember, if I do, I will understand’. If children practise hygiene while playing games, they will understand and remember it. Besides, they will spread the messages. If they don’t imbibe the value of healthy living at a young age, they will remain at the risk of falling ill. This is the only way to create healthier communities.”
Apollo Foundation wishes to focus on rural areas to develop such parks because kids in urban settings have access to recreational opportunities, which are not available to their rural counterparts. Ghosh feels that city schools are developed and equipped with facilities to teach and train kids in a recreational environment. She adds, “If you see the health index, issues such as infant mortality rate, maternal malnutrition, and child stunting are caused due to poor hygiene. If awareness is spread, people will be aware of preventive care.”
Richa Shukla, who curated the park and is an educationist now, recollects, “Our vision was to create a child-friendly, inclusive and safe space for children to engage in fun rooted in culture games, and reinforces critical preventive hygiene messages.” She adds, “The model is based on key characteristics of play, where the experiences need to be joyful, socially interactive, actively engaging, meaningful, and educational.”
Besides games, efforts are made to offer incentives to use the park. Each child, who visits it twice, is allotted an exclusive Dettol Hygiene Play Park Card, which allows future entry to the park. Every subsequent entry allows the child to gain a bonus point. Anyone with five points gets to submit his/her game idea, art, slogan, or creation for the DBSI Dettol Hygiene Play Park media page. If one has 10 points, the child is eligible for boot camps, which are organised every quarter. The fun-filled, play-based, and inter-state camps promote children’s interests, and provide a platform to share ideas in the Hygiene Olympiad. Kids get a DBSI Scout Badge.
“Children got social anxiety as they had not been to schools due to Covid. They need to engage. Most become shy and introvert,” explains a mother, who regularly visits the Aragonda park with her daughter. She adds, “The best part of the park is that besides individual games there are group ones, where children have to solve challenges together. It is a collaborative space, which can help them break away from social anxiety.”
