Two weeks from now, in this season of festivals, the nation will be celebrating another festival, a festival that was first celebrated in 2009 but has turned out to be India’s biggest giving festival, Daan Utsav formerly known as the Joy of Giving Week. The millions, who have been celebrating it every year from 2nd to 8th October have the aspiration to make this one of the iconic festivals of India like Durga Puja, Ganesh Puja, Diwali, Eid etc.
Millions of people have been associated with the giving across the country including Odisha. From CEOs and Celebrities to Chaprasis and Cooks, from cities to villages, from individuals and families to communities and associations, NGOs to corporates, all have been involved in small and large-scale initiatives in giving and promoting the idea of giving. This festival has motivated millions of people to turn into givers and most significantly give and mobilize giving in many innovative ways. The festival has been used to raise funds, mobilize material, provide service or even just a random act of kindness.
There have been celebrity auctions for Alia Bhatt’s favourite personal outfits, lunch with Amitabh Bacchan and listening to his stories and a cricket coaching camp by Tendulkar himself. All the money raised went to charities the celebrities were supporting. In 2013, the most prominent hotels in Bhubaneswar, Trident, Mayfair, Crown, Marrion, HHI and Swosti came together to give a combined buffet serving the best food on offer at each hotel. Selected NGOs sold tickets worth Rs 2000 to their patrons, who then got to eat the lavish buffet. The hotels, however, gave their food and service free. All the money raised by the NGOs went for their work.
Many NGOs have used the opportunity to mobilize material to give to the needy. The first time Bakul Foundation joined hands with the national campaign of Goonj to collect books, clothes and toys, it collected over 20 mini-trucks of material from apartments, schools, colleges and public collection centres. Bakul has also done book collection drives such as the Inter School Book Bucket Challenge and fundraisers through Wish Trees in which the requirements of a new library, have been broken down into small individual wishes ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 1000.
But it’s not only the urban rich or middle class, which has been giving. The Auto Mahasangh in Bhubaneswar felt inspired and took 80 elderly and infirm people from the city slums to Puri for a darshan of Lord Jagannath in 2012. The tiny village of 100 families in Badbaarsingh in Badamba Tehsil of Cuttack has made it one of their most important festivals. It has been the largest community celebration in India for the last 7 years. Every villager is involved in giving and they organize a huge Seva Mahotsav in which there are separate stalls for shoes, clothes, children’s stationery, snacks and refreshments, medicines etc. Everything is free for the people from the nearby villages.
The way Badbaarsingh village celebrates Daan Utsav is how everyone involved in the festival hopes that the entire country will celebrate eventually.
