VEDANTA KHUSHI - Over 2000 people of Delhi, Udaipur, Kolkata and Mumbai Painted

It was a day for over 2000 people including amateur artists and school children showed their solidarity towards girl child by painting 2000 new ideas to protect and honour girls in India. "Khushi : Our Girls Our Pride" campaign launched by Vedanta Group and NDTV organized an event at Udaipur, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkatta simultaneously. 

Vedanta and NDTV joined hands to build a life of dignity for the girl child and the film star Priyanka Chopra has been the brand ambassador of the campaign.

"KHUSHI" is an AWARENESS CAMPAIGN, launched by Vedanta Resources plc, with a focus to sensitize people towards care for the underprivileged and deprived children – their Nutrition – Education – Health and overall development.

The Campaign is driving the vision of Mr. Anil Agarwal – Chairman, Vedanta group, that “No Child in India should remains Malnourished and be deprived of Education, Nutrition and primary Health Care.  Ultimately, India should be a malnourished free nation."

Khushi has a strong base on Facebook with over 36,000 volunteers from across the globe - www.facebook.com/groups/vedantakhushi.  Several members have gone ahead and helped these underprivileged children at their own level.

The campaign has been successful in connecting people of similar minds and thoughts throughout the world.

VEDANTA'S "KHUSHI", NDTV AND PRIYANKA CHOPRA JOIN HANDS FOR GIRL CHILD

Campaign  : ‘Our Girls : Our Pride’ Launched - Priyanka Chopra is the Brand Ambassador

Vedanta Group and NDTV have joined hands to promote Girl Child in India through campaign "Our Girls : Our Pride".  The campaign has been launched under Vedanta's "Khushi" awareness campaign, that is already promoting care for the underprivileged children, their health, nutrition and education.  

Ms. Priyanka Chopra has been named the Brand Ambassador of the campaign "Our Girl : Our Pride" .  The campaign launched on 19th August 2013 in New Delhi,  will address key issues like nutrition, education, health, foeticide and infanticide.  The focus of the campaign will be to educate people at large, bring awareness, bring policy changes and sensitize people towards girl child and build a respect for the gender.

Looking at India, the country houses the maximum number of children in the world but it is also true that around 50% of child are suffering from malnutrition and the number of girls is large. The ratio of females per 1000 mails has been continuously decreasing since last more than 30 years.  There is a conscious need to not only protect the girl child but also bring in dedicated efforts towards their education, nutrition, health and overall development.

The three partners in this campaign are unique in their own fields.

Priyanka Chopra, who has been named as Brand Ambassador for this campaign, has been UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador for India, Priyanka has been actively involved in various causes related to the girl child for many years.  She has also personally supported this cause through the ‘Priyanka Chopra Foundation for Health and Education’, which works towards providing support to unprivileged girls across the country in the areas Education and Health.

Vedanta has been pioneering the child welfare campaign in India with a mission to make India a child malnourished free nation.  In its effort, since 2008 Vedanta has been associated with government to take care of about 14,000 Anganwadis (child care centres), benefiting more than 500,000 deprived children.  The company has also constructed 8 Hi-tech Mid Day Meal Kitchens that provide hot nutritious meal to over 250,000 rural students studying in government schools.  Vedanta has adopted many rural schools towards bringing quality of education and strengthening infrastructure. 

NDTV has always played an instrumental role in creating awareness about various issues existing in the country through diverse, path breaking initiatives such as Save Our Tigers, Support My School, Marks for Sports and the Greenathon amongst others. 

The campaign launch was marked with the presence of Campaign Ambassador - Priyanka Chopra, Dr Prannoy Roy - Co-chairperson NDTV and Mr. Anil Agarwal - Chairman Vedanta Group,  Dr. Girija Vyas - Minister for Urban Poverty Alleviation, Dr A L Sharada - Programme Director, Population First, Ms. Deepak Kalra, Chairperson for Child Rights Protection Committee in Rajasthan and many NGOs and other dignitaries.

Hon’ble Minister for Women and Child Development Krishna Tirathaddressed the gathering via a live-link and said, “We should respect women in our society because both men and women are equal partners to take out our society forward. According to our Constitution, we have equal rights, so we enjoy equal rights as men and women.”

On being introduced as Campaign Ambassador, Priyanka Chopra, said, “The upliftment of the girl child in India has been a cause that is very close to my heart.  In my role as UNICEF’s Goodwill Ambassador and through my experience with my personal foundation, I understand that while there have been some positive strides being made every day, there is still a serious amount of work that is still left to be done.  I am honoured to be a part of NDTV - Vedanta- Our Girls : Our Pride, which is a wonderful initiative. 

NDTV has pioneered several successful campaigns in the past, creating a positive change in the lives of many. My personal experience with NDTV on the Greenathon over many successful years gives me the belief that together we can work towards making a sustainable change. With this initiative we aim to change the lives of many girls and provide them with basic necessities to be able to lead a quality life. I’m looking forward to creating a successful campaign that will give everyone an opportunity to come together in making a better and brighter India for our young girls.”

On this occasion, Mr. Anil Agarwal, Chairman, Vedanta Group, said "Vedanta is committed to partner with all stakeholders, especially community, for a holistic development of India.  What we need today is a movement on a war-footing to give our children what is rightfully theirs — a childhood that is not deprived of health, nutrition and education. We all must join hands — individuals, civil society, corporates, media fraternity and the government. We are quite delighted to associate with NDTV and Ms Priyanka Chopra for taking the "Our Girls Our Pride" campaign forward."

Addressing the audience, Dr. Prannoy Roy, Chairperson, NDTV, said “Perhaps the single most important change we can bring to our country is to invest in our girl children - to focus on their rights and demand their equality in society. Ensuring that every girl child in India achieves her full potential will transform India in a way that no other revolution can. This campaign is a small step in that direction - to raise awareness and to seek concrete steps towards a better India for the girl child.”

‘NDTV-Vedanta - Our Girls : Our Pride’ is yet another attempt to make a noteworthy difference in our world.  Apart from sensitizing the masses, the campaign also aims to raise funds to make a positive impact in the lives of as many girls as possible.

VEDANTA KHUSHI WORKSHOP WITH STREET CHILDREN AT MALLA TALAI

Meeting children of streets on the street is never easy. Their expectations are different, their daily routines are different and also the way they see life.  The circumstances had changed them to such an extent that they dont want to change now. Vedanta "Khushi" team was planning to meet these children at their own hide-out, the street. We all were wondering how do we handle them and build a communication.  From interaction to hygienic point of view, to support to every thing was haunting our minds.

With all preparation we went to meet these children at Malla Talai, a locality where you will find such children running around the streets, without any focus or ambition or any fear.  Most of them do not go to school and have not gone either. Some are inclined to go but there is no school in the locality.

The "Khushi" team instantly got engaged with these children and the conversation started.  Deepu and Shyam wanted to go to school and were very good in their creative art. Geeta and Rakhi were more into domestic work and had no thought to education.  Raja was interested in becoming big man and have a big car and house. Radheshyam was very quite as he was trying to understand what we had in mind for him. All these children were more into doing something different. Some had aspirations to do but were not sure to join our band-wagon, who was already into more than 100 children.

The children on the street are not by choice, but by circumstances. "Khushi" on this day, tried to inculcate a feeling of being wanted, feeling of being educated, importance of health & hygiene, and most importantly, a desire to do something different.

While leaving "Kaali" came and was holding my hand, she said nothing, just a smile, a "Khushi" on her face conveyed she was happy.  Our job was done for this day.

Follow "Khushi" at www.facebook.com/groups/vedantakhushi