Delhi govt does a song and dance to raise disease awareness

New Delhi: In a bid to tackle vector-borne diseases such as dengue and chikungunya, the Delhi government plans to ramp up awareness campaigns in the city with the help of folk music, poetry and street plays in six languages, including Urdu and Sanskrit.

The idea behind using different languages-- Maithili, Bhojpuri, Hindi and Punjabi, besides Urdu and Sanskrit-- in awareness programmes is to maximise the outreach of the activity, a senior government official said.

For instance, if the campaign is being run in a Muslim- dominated area such as Okhla, the Urdu Academy will organise poetry recitations, street plays and other programmes in Urdu, the official explained.

The Directorate of Information and Publicity (DIP) had recently held a meeting with officials of the Maithili- Bhojpuri, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi and Sanskrit Academies for the purpose.

The DIP asked the bodies to suggest ideas on ways to raise awareness about the diseases.

Besides street plays and poetry recitation, songs will be used as a medium. Plans are also afoot for campaign jingles on the issue.

The official said the jingles would be played at popular places such as gurdwaras, temples and mosques.

"Once all academies submit their plans, they will be placed before Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Deputy Manish Sisodia for the final approval," the official said.

Health and education departments have also been asked to prepare awareness programmes.

On Thursday, Lt Governor Anil Baijal had directed all agencies to effectively monitor and improve the functioning of 24X7 helplines and update their database to provide real-time information on hospital beds and other details to the public.

At least 125 cases of malaria, 152 of chikungunya and nearly 100 of dengue were recorded in recent weeks in the national capital.