Savlon is a popular health & hygiene brand in India. Through its nation-wide ‘Healthy India Mission’, Savlon wanted to create awareness, particularly in rural schools, about poor hand hygiene and promote the habit of hand-washing in children. But since inculcating a new habit in kids is tough, Savlon needed a simple and engaging idea that required minimum effort from kids.
Cultural Context
Most primary grade students in rural India still use black slate and chalk sticks to write in schools. So we developed an innovative solution that turns washing hands with soap into an enjoyable habit. We took this approach because most kids think washing hands with water is enough. Which is why millions of children across India still don’t have the habit of washing hands with soap.
Solution
Most primary grade students in rural India still use black slate and chalk sticks to write in schools. This led to the idea of Savlon’s Healthy Hands Chalk Sticks – made with a mixture of chalk powder and soap granules. Using these chalk sticks not only helped the kids wash their hands with soap at lunch break, but it also helped induce the habit of everyday hand-washing in most children.
Insight
For the first phase, Savlon identified 100 rural schools across India based on health data. Under ‘Healthy India Mission’ Savlon distributed these chalk sticks in rural schools falling under 20 cities/districts for free. Activities in schools were carried out for months before identifying a new set of schools, including schools that sought these chalk sticks via social media posts.
