On this Independence Day (August 15), the NDTV-Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign, one of India's longest-running public health initiatives, successfully wraps up season 9 with Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya and eminent doctors and Padma Awardees.
'In the ninth season of the NDTV-Dettol Banega Swasth India campaign, we had chosen a goal of Lakshya Sampoorn Swasthya Ka with an aim to provide healthcare facilities and treatment for everyone and ensure a holistic healthy life for all the individuals. It wasn't an easy task, but we tried reaching out to everyone,' said Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan as he kickstarted the Independence Day 2-hour special show for Season 9 finale.
Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya also joined NDTV-Dettol Banega Swasth India Season 9 finale on Independence Day.
Season 9 finale of Banega Swasth India celebrated the heroes from the healthcare sector, who are also Padma Awardees and who have selflessly dedicated themselves to the service of others.
On the Banega Swasth India Season 9 Finale, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya spoke about the targets of TB Mukt Bharat and Sickle Cell Disease. He said, 'Our country will be TB Mukt by the year 2025 and Sickle Cell Disease free by the year 2047. We just need concentrated efforts and have to work together.'
Dr Indira Chakravarty, Padma Shri awardee for the year 2014 and Hygiene and Public Health Specialist talked about the importance of preventive healthcare in India and said that the role of Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan in leading many on-ground public healthcare campaigns including Banega Swasth India has been very positive and motivating.
'Gut health is the key to a healthy lifestyle and therefore, gut hygiene, which means, washing hands is very important. The Banega Swasth India campaign has done a lot in terms of changing the gut hygiene of people by telling people to keep their hands clean and then actually implementing it at the grassroot level,' said Dr Nageshwar Reddy, Padma Shri awardee for 2002 and Padma Bhushan, 2016. Dr Reddy is the Chairman of the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology (AIG) and AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad.
Dr. Neelam Kler, Padma Bhushan awardee for the year 2014 and a Neonatologist at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi also joined the NDTV-Dettol Banega Swasth India season 9 finale and highlighted the big drop in neonatal mortality in India. She said, 'We have made a very drastic reduction, we need to congratulate ourselves.'
Dr. Praveen Chandra, Padma Shri awardee for the year 2016 and a cardiologist from Medanta - The Medicity in Gurugram joined the NDTV-Dettol Season 9 Finale and spoke about why in India heart diseases are on the rise. He said, 'Our lifestyle is to be blamed. We don't do any physical activity; our diet is not good. 90 per cent of heart deaths can be prevented just by lifestyle changes.'
On the Season 9 finale, panelists along with Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan discussed the need for India to have one common health council where discussion on health with healthcare experts can be done openly and everyone has access to this pool of information.
Dr Ravi Kannan, Padma Shri Awardee and an Oncologist from Silchar, Assam on NDTV-Dettol Season 9 Finale shared his journey of working in remote areas of the country just to provide people with basic healthcare. Sharing an anecdote with the panellists, Dr Kannan said, 'In our village, the average size of breast cancer is 10cm, which is like carrying a coconut in your breast. These women come to us after the knot has developed massively. Sometimes it bursts. We worked with ASHA workers, educated them and involved them in health awareness programmes and educating women in the community.'
Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan along with the panel of doctors discussed the role of technology in healthcare and if things like artificial intelligence (AI) are a boon or bane for the world.
On the season 9 Finale, Ravi Bhatnagar, Director, External Affairs & Partnerships, SOA, Reckitt talked about the campaign and its achievements over the years. He said, 'In the first season of Banega Swasth India we spoke about creating a hygiene index, we started from one city. From 1 to 2, 2 to 5 and 5 to 25 cities, then we got an opportunity to make this index public and it was made public in the form of Swachh Survekshan. Today, it is being used across India in the form of rankings. Now, we are talking about creating a council for healthcare, in India, currently, we don't have anything. I think it is a great opportunity for India to work on this. We are a population of 1.4 billion and we should build a think tank in our country with a pool of our many successful doctors who can help us achieve the goal of one health and one planet.'
Dr. Veeraswamy Seshiah, Padma Shri awardee for the year 2022 and Diabetologist from Tamil Nadu talked about the prevalence of diabetes among pregnant women and why India should be focussing on it urgently if it needs to eliminate diabetes from the country for good.
Dr Dhananjay Diwakar Sagdeo, Hematologist and Chief Medical Officer at Swami Vivekananda Medical Mission in Wayanad, joined the Season 9 finale and underlined the importance of focussing on tribal health in India. On the show, he also made a request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said, 'My request to Prime Minister is to declare Sickle Cell Disease as a notifiable disease so that the testing of the disease can be done at the right stage as it is a genetic disease, which is transmitted from first generation to next generation.'
Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan signed off the two-hour special Independence Day show by thanking the healthcare heroes and said, 'You are the knowledge and future of our country. Because of you, we are sitting here. We survived the pandemic because of you all, so thank you.'
