When festive fervour meets social causes
MUMBAI: This year, various Navratri mandals in the city are promising people a good time but have also decided to turn into platforms for social awareness by including themes such as organ donation, flood and drought relief.
Two organisers — Jai Ho and Meera’s Navratri Utsav 2018 at Borivli and Garbotsav 2018 at Ghatkopar — have decided to donate proceedings from the sale of passes to the chief minister’s Paani Foundation and the Kerala flood relief respectively. Adarsh Navratri Utsav 2018 at JVPD in Juhu has a crowdfunding platform as an associate for the event.
For Borivali Medical Brotherhood (BMB), which consists of 1,400 doctors from around the area, the celebration called Dhoom Machale Navratri 2018 at Kandivali will create awareness about organ donation.
“We have a skit being performed by school children who will speak about organ donation, organ recipients walking the ramp and visually-challenged dancers performing. One person can save seven lives, so in that sense, we can save some 7,000 lives through our event,” said Dr Nimesh Mehta, vice president, BMB.
Mehta said each person who pledges to donate his or her organs will be given vouchers which they could redeem at the location.
At Naidu Club Navratri and Prerna Raas 2018, themes will cover cleanliness and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Last year, the organisers at these clubs spoke about drug awareness, eye donation, and the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ campaign.
“We have made an audio-visual presentation which speaks about cleanliness, it will be played during two breaks,” said Ganesh Naidu, organiser, Kora Kendra Navratri.