CM asks students to become dengue warriors in Delhi

New Delhi : Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday encouraged school students to become "dengue warriors" and spread awareness in their neighbourhood about a campaign being run by the Delhi government to tackle the vector-borne disease.

CM announced that the students will soon get "dengue kits" in schools which will include pamphlets about the campaign explaining how dengue mosquito breeds and how it can be avoided.

Kejriwal took a "dengue prevention class" via video conferencing and asked students to spread awareness about the "10 minutes 10 weeks" campaign in their locality. Under the campaign launched on September 1, people are expected to devote 10 minutes at 10 am every Sunday for 10 weeks to ensure that there is no stagnant water in their homes which could allow breeding of mosquitoes. The campaign will conclude in mid-November.

"This is just a 10 minute... dengue prevention class. We have been running '10 minutes, 10 weeks' campaign ahead of mosquito breeding season to ensure that there are no mosquitogenic condition. I have come today as a teacher, not as your Chief Minister. We have to join the campaign every week for ten minutes to save ourselves and our families.

This can only happen if we continue to fight against dengue with all our conviction. I have a lot of expectations from children because nobody can turn down a child's appeal... I urge you children to take the first step towards checking for clean stagnant water in your homes and then motivate your parents to do the same," the Chief Minister said.

Kejriwal said students should be involved in the campaign and be ambassadors in the neighbourhood to encourage everyone to constantly check their houses and change or remove any stagnant water. "If we drain the water stored in our houses every seven days, then mosquito eggs cannot hatch.

We have to check our house. It does not take more than 10 minutes to do it. If we check our house and tell our neighbour to check their house, I guarantee that no one in your house will contract dengue. Most of these mosquitoes breed between September 1 and November 15. So we have to do the checking for 10 weeks," he said.

About the 'dengue kits', Kejriwal said, "The kits will also have stickers saying 'my house is dengue free'. Once you have checked your houses, paste the sticker outside your house. There will also be 'dengue warriors' badges for students in the kits."

The Chief Minister on Monday interacted with principals of government and private schools and directed them to encourage students to take the message of making houses in their neighbourhood dengue free by maintaining cleanliness.

The schools were asked to make arrangements for the interaction as well as for screening of a film about the campaign. "In 2015, there were 15,000 cases and 60 people were killed. Last year, there were 2,800 dengue cases.

The disease has spread in many states of India and doctors feared that dengue would be the most dangerous this year. However, public participation in the mega campaign has led to just 286 dengue cases in Delhi this year. It's almost like magic," Kejriwal said.

The Chief Minister told students that in a fortnight he would be talking to them about reducing pollution. "Next, we have to ensure pollution also reduces in the national capital. You must have heard that pollution levels have gone down in the national capital. I will be coming back in next few days to talk to you about how we can reduce pollution," he said.