Four students from Chennai selected amongst top 50 national winners of Swasth Bharat Tech Champs program organised by WhiteHat Jr and Reckitt To receive scholarship from Reckitt for creating an inspiring mobile application under the Dettol Banega Swasth India program

CHENNAI: Four students from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, in the age group of 9-17 years, have been selected as part of the top op 50 national winners of ‘WhiteHat Jr Swasth Bharat Tech Champs’ which was launched as part of the ‘Dettol Banega Swasth India’ program initiated by Reckitt, a leading global consumer health and hygiene company. Reckitt and WhiteHat Jr partnered earlier this year with an aim to inspire the younger generation to find solutions to the health and hygiene issues in our country leveraging technology. The four winners include Sadana Avinash (14 years), Srikrishna TK (9 years), Adithya Srinivasan (14 years) and S Ramasubramanian (17 years) who have created apps with an aim to help India become healthy and hygienic.

The program saw participation from more than 10,700 students, in the age-group of 6-18 years, from 700+ cities and towns in India. The top 50 winners explored ideas ranging from waste management, covid-19 care and vaccination, community and personal health and hygiene, personal health and hygiene, mental health and menstruation. These 50 winners were recognized and awarded a scholarship of Rs. 50,000 each by Reckitt with the opportunity to engage with Superstar and Dettol Banega Swasth India’s Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan live on Dettol and NDTV’s Swasth Bharat Sampann Bharat Telethon.

Speaking to all of the children, Amitabh Bachchan, said, “There is something fascinating about the way a child’s mind works. Where adults see constraints, children see possibilities. Seeing the wonderful app ideas by the young winners addressing issues pertaining to health and hygiene, fills my heart with hope for the future of India. It is these young creators of today who are going to become the inventors and leaders of tomorrow. Interacting with these young creators was an enriching experience for me, and I wish them all the very best for their future!”

“The children today are leveraging technology to express themselves, give shape to their ideas and create real solutions. The WhiteHat Jr Swasth Bharat Tech Champs program reinforces this amazing movement. Children responded in multitude ways to address some of the most pressing health problems. While some wanted to drive action by getting people to volunteer or donate medicines, others wanted to enable them by offering self-help tools to improve their personal health. Some even wanted to explore societal issues by galvanizing community support or creating awareness about specific issues,” said Trupti Mukker, CEO, WhiteHat Jr. “We are enthused to shine a light on these bright minds. Seeing children turn into creators is the fruition of all the work we’re putting in at WhiteHat Jr.”

Gaurav Jain, Senior Vice President, Reckitt South Asia, said, “Over the years, Dettol Banega Swasth India program has successfully focused on driving people to adopt habits for making India healthier and hygienic. In the digital era, WhiteHat Jr Swasth Bharat Tech Champs program has helped us engage and inspire young minds to bring about a change in the way we approach health and hygiene issues. This wonderful amalgamation of technology and creative thinking has yielded exciting ideas. It is exactly this kind of creative thinking that can help us in creating Swasth Bharat in the long run!”

From personal health and hygiene to keeping the environment clean, the apps created by these four Chennai winners combine technology and creative thinking to help solve pertinent issues faced by the society. The six winning apps from Chennai include:

*The students have made prototype applications with a vision to make India healthy and hygienic.