Turning Anti-Dengue Campaign to a Mass Movement
Every year, the city of Delhi is bitten by the spread of Dengue in the monsoon months. Since 2015, the Government of NCT of Delhi has been putting a strong front to arrest the spread of the disease by taking proactive steps and also motivating the citizens to keep their surroundings clean.
In September 2019, the Dialogue and Development Commission, worked closely with the Health Department to conceive, design and launch Delhi Government's mega anti-Dengue campaign '10 Hafte-10 Baje-10 Minute' - Har Ravivar Dengue Par Vaar. The campaign targeted to mobilise all the residents of Delhi to devote 10 minutes at 10 o'clock for 10 weeks every Sunday to ensure that there is no stagnant water in their vicinity.
Besides supporting the mass outreach campaign, DDC proactively partnered with communities across Delhi to take the impactful message of this campaign to each and every resident of Delhi. On 15 September 2019, in the presence of Health Minister, Shri Satyender Jain, DDC signed MOUs with URJA Delhi (apex body of RWAs in Delhi) and the Citizen Alliance to generate mass awareness about the anti-dengue campaign through RWAs. More than 3,000 RWAs across Delhi were roped in as part of the Delhi Government's '10 Hafte-10 Baje-10 Minute' campaign.
URJA Delhi and the Citizen Alliance pledged their full support to help the Government reach out to associated RWAs and motivate them to join the campaign for the prevention of vector-borne diseases, Dengue and Chikungunya. The engagement began with a mega event on 24 September 2019 facilitated by DDC in which Chief Minister Shri Arvind Kejriwal addressed the RWA representatives across Delhi at the Talkatora Stadium.
The Chief Minister announced a 5-point action plan for the RWAs for better coordination and cooperation in the prevention of Dengue in the state.
- RWAs have to ensure that the government's pamphlet on dengue prevention measures reaches every household in their localities.
- Dengue-free stickers have to be delivered to every household. People can paste the sticker after inspecting their homes for clean and stagnant water every Sunday to notify others that their house is dengue free.
- RWAs can also spread the message to inspect the houses on their WhatsApp groups to encourage people to inspect their houses for dengue on Sundays.
- Every RWA has to issue circulars and ask residents to check their houses at 10 AM every Sunday.
- After inspecting their homes, RWA officials have to go to their area and convince the residents to inspect their houses at 10 AM every Sunday.
The campaign has been running successfully for the past 3 years now and has generated awareness regarding dengue prevention measures and encouraged citizens to join the mass movement against this vector-borne disease.
The anti-dengue campaign of the Delhi government led by Chief Minister Sh. Arvind Kejriwal is getting support from people across the spectrum. The participation of RWAs is very important for us as they can ensure that this truly becomes a mass campaign.
Within a short span of 4 years, the number of dengue cases in Delhi has drastically come down by 80% due to continuous efforts made by the Delhi Government. We will reach out to all RWAs across the capital and ensure each and every resident of Delhi joins this campaign.
We welcome the initiative of the Delhi government to eradicate dengue from the city. From URJA we will inform as well as exhort all RWAs to come forward and actively participate in this drive. We will advise RWAs and their members to inspect their respective localities and households regularly so that clear water does not pool in the area. With the effort of the RWAs and the citizens, we will try our best to ensure that the Hon'ble CM's plans for ensuring public interest are successful.
With the help of the Delhi government, we will ensure from our side that the inspection of water deposition happens every day at our localities and we will make Delhi dengue-free.
