Become dengue warriors: Kejriwal tells Delhi students, schools to distribute dengue prevention kits

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a "dengue prevention" class via video conferencing on Tuesday and asked the students to spread awareness about the "10 minutes 10 weeks" campaign in their locality. He encouraged school students to become "dengue warriors" and spread awareness about a campaign run by the Delhi government to tackle the vector-borne disease in their neighbourhood.

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 conditions. I want the students to be involved in the campaign and be ambassadors in the neighbourhood to encourage everybody to constantly check their houses and change or remove any stagnant water," he said in his address.

He said mosquito eggs take 7 to 10 days to hatch. "If we drain the water stored in our houses on the seventh day, then the eggs will not 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 the neighbour to check his or her house, I guarantee you that no one in your house will get dengue. Most of these mosquitoes breed between September 1 and November 15. So we have to do the checking for 10 weeks," he said.

Kejriwal announced that 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. "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," he said.

The chief minister had on Monday interacted with principals of government and private schools and directed them to encourage students to take the message of making houses dengue free in their neighbourhood by maintaining cleanliness. The schools were asked to make arrangements for the interaction as well as for screening a film about the campaign.