The document describes a handwashing behavior change campaign targeted at children in the village of Telav, India. The campaign will use familiar sounds and symbols from the community, like the school bell "dong" and fortune telling, to condition children to associate handwashing with healthy habits. A variety of activities are proposed, like handwashing games at school and medical skits, to engage children and spread the message over 21 days to form a new habit. The campaign aims to leverage children as agents of change to influence household behaviors through peer pressure and messaging.

1. Maverick 1: Ravinandan Puri Year: 2nd
Maverick 2: Ronak Soni Year: 2nd
Campus: MICA, Ahmedabad.
Team: Gujju Gang

2. The Community
The village has basic public amenities like Primary School,
Health Clinic, Irrigation and water supply system and is
connected to the city by a Pukka road.
We have chosen the people of Telav Village (population 2900) as our
target community.
The Village of Telav in Sanand Taluka of Ahmadabad district
used to be a sleepy village far away from the city of Ahmadabad
until 2009. It was then that the Tata Nano arrived in Sanand and
changed the face of all these villages in the area.
With land prices soaring high, people of this village became
prosperous and their living conditions improved. However the people
of the village are still rooted in tradition and they continue with their
conventional way of living.
Literacy rate is around 65% and most people belong to OBC category.
There aren't around 700 to 800 children in the village in the age-group of
8-16.

3. The insights behind the ‘idea’
Barriers
Aversion to any Behavioural Change
Rural semiliterate adults are hard-headed and relentless when it comes to any behavioural
change in their way of life.
They live with the amenities in the world of today but with thoughts of yesterday and have a firm
belief that nothing would happen to them and are safe from diseases resulting from unhygienic
conditions.
Immobility of Soap
The traditional norm in the community is to use the common soap for all washing purposes. The soap
is ensconced in the dark corner of bathroom and is seldom seen outside the bathroom.
This immobility of soap restricts people in washing theirs hands as often as they should and is a
key barrier in changing their hand washing behaviour.
Perception of Triviality
Washing hands is considered a very trivial issue for the community.
They hardly give a conscious thought to washing their hands with soap as a regular habit for the
people.

4. The insights behind the ‘idea’
Motivators
Concern for Children & their Health
The adults in the community pay heed to what their children say because they look up to their school
going children who bring new ideas, including focus on hygiene.
Hence children are the major influencers and harbingers of behavioural change in this community
including hand washing.
Doctors and People’s Concern for their Well Being
With advent of modern times and facilities the people in the community have developed a belief that
with new times have come new diseases, which weren’t prevalent earlier. This has lead to their
visiting the local doctor much more often.
Doctors enjoy high trust among the community members and serve as motivators and influencers
enforcing personal hygiene.
Perceived Image and Social Acceptance
As people in the community start selectively adopting urban habits they have started looking up on
grooming, personal hygiene and cleanliness as a means to express themselves and gain social
acceptance.
Social acceptance can be an important motivator to influence their hand washing behaviour.

5. The ‘germ of an idea’
‘Using familiar sounds (the Dong of bell used in school for recess) and
symbols to condition children to wash their hands more often’
“The Dettol Dong”

6. The ‘germ of an idea’
The Dettol Dong
In the village schools, children have been accustomed to relate the dong of the school bell with recess breaks
where they feast on their homemade lunch box. However, not all wash their hands before eating.
We aim to position the ‘Dong’ of school bell as a ‘The Dettol Dong’- A real life metaphor that would remind
them how important it is to wash their hands before eating.
Linking the sound of the bell would be employing a familiar sound in their daily life to reinforce the importance of
hand washing .
At home as well playing with the ‘thaali’ before food is served is a regular activity children indulge in. We
also aim to connote this dong sound of the ‘thaali’ with ‘The Dettol Dong’, thus reiterating and reminding
them to wash their hands.

7. Cultural Insight behind the ‘germ of an idea’
Children would be employed as change agents for driving behavior change since adults look up to their
children and pay heed to what the new ideas children bring.
For the villagers in this community, sounds, symbols, rituals hold a very dear place in their way of
life. They associate specific meanings with these elements.
For them Cock-a-doodle-doo of rooster connotes morning time, the temple ‘aarti’ stands for auspicious
timing, the ‘matka’ for them connotes potable water, the cow for them is holy; such associations are
passed on to them traditionally.
Ergo, they have been conditioned to use ‘associationist’ thinking in their day to day life. This important
fact if incorporated in a campaign can be used to penetrate their psyche and affect a behavioral
change.
Our campaign intends to use the ‘Dong’ of the school bell as a reminder and tool for conditioning them to
associate it with hand washing.

8. Bringing it alive in my community
Elements of Live Campaign
Dettol Dong and Dong Games in School
During School recesses, we do activations for a prolonged period of days, where our Dettol Men in a fun
and playful way make children relate the ‘Dong’ sound of bell with washing hands and sharing free
samples of soaps.
We design multiple games to daily reinforce this idea.
The Magical Prescription
We will arrange a free medical camp for children in the village. After giving general advice and goodies
the Dettol doctor would give them the magical prescription which would promise to keep them healthy
for ever. This magical prescription would be a blank page on a Dettol letter pad. This will convey the
idea that they have a doctor available in their home itself the Dettol soap, who will take care of them
and they don’t need any other medicine.
We will also convey this idea in form of a story (Nukkad Natak) with the Dettol dong as its main
element. Free Samples of Dettol soaps will also be distributed.
Dettol

9. Bringing it alive in my community
Maha Bhavishyavani
Villagers believe in astrology and we intend to use this in our campaign.
Our activation would have a pundit (fortune teller) talk to kids about what they would like to be when
they grow up! However, the fortune teller would also highlight that their palms which hold their future
are full of dirt and hidden germs which can harm their future with bad health. The solution
would be to wash their hands, and brighten their palms and their future. The activation would be
spontaneous, engaging and would use the concept of Dong and Jingles to attract attention. Giving
free sample of soap.
The Dettol ‘tarazoo’ (Weighing Scale)
A life-size ‘tarazoo’ with one pan having a single Dettol and the other pan having hundreds of
medicines with the Dettol pan outweighing the medicine pan. It would be a stark visual symbol
depicting how Dettol usage can prevent many diseases and is much better than having hundreds of
medicines.
This installations will be kept at touch point like the school, crossroads and outside local clinic. We
would attract attention to this using the Dettol dong and jingles.
We would do ‘Nukkad Natak’ around this theme and distribute free sample of soap.
Estimation: With a budget of Rs.1 Lakh, the campaign is likely
reach 1500-2000 people including 600-800 children.

10. Convince us on how it will change the behaviour
Children acting as Change Agents to Drive Change Behaviour in Community
Children in the age group 8 to 15 community influence most behaviour change and purchases. The
often play back these messages to others and are influential in changing the habits of the otherwise
hard-headed adults.
Conditioning the Children to Form a Habit
‘The Dettol Dong’ would be the metaphor for a loud reminder for washing their hands before eating.
It is an established fact that any activity repeated over a period of 21 days becomes a habit.
Also we are using ‘The Dong’, something which they have been accustomed to relate to food for
years to convey our message which itself is related to food habits.
Peer to Peer Impact on Children
Children are influenced by their peers to a large extent. Promoting a group activity among the
children community would cause a greater impact.

11. Convince us on how it will change the behaviour
Engaging the Children and Villagers
Using conventional and familiar elements and giving them a completely new meaning to convey our message.
Familiar Element of Their Life Traditional Role they Play
The new Meaning that we attach
to these elements through our
campaign
The Dong
For children it Connotes Lunch
time. Relates to food
For children it now connotes
Washing Hand before food. Now
Relates to Food, Fun, Frolic and
Group Activity
The Doctor Post Diagnosis treatment
Focus on Avoiding treatment by
being disease free
The Fortune Teller
Random Predictions about
people’s future
Attributing people’s future with the
efforts they take to safeguard their
own health
The ‘Tarazoo’ A mundane weighing device
A tool using which we convey what
is important and what is not