IIT Madras under its annual fest "SAARANG" joins hands with Smile Foundation, a national level development organization focusing on children, youth and girl children across 25 states of India to campaign against child labour through better nutrition that leads to better literacy. Through the initiative IIT Madras has successfully supported the nutrition of 100 underprivileged children.
Lt. Col. (retd.) Vikram Singh Verma, COO, Smile Foundation said, "Smile Foundation started this initiative in association with IIT Madras on children's day last year. They are the young generations of tomorrow and Smile Foundation always feel that this society can be a better place to live in only when each individual work towards a developed society. Mal-nutrition is a great cause of concern, a child can only think of school once he is properly nourished. . We are happy to see the next generation being socially conscious and concerned about their responsibilities towards the society at large "
Today, mal-nutrition is one of the biggest issues faced by our society. Close to 13.5 million underprivileged children in India are out of school, forced into child labour in order to earn a single meal a day. Hence a nutritious meal every day can be one solution to curb child labour and incentivize children not miss school. The campaign commenced on Children's day 14th November, 2012. The awareness of the campaign has spread across hospitality industries.
IIT Madras has pledged its support in the provision of nutritious meals to at least 100 underprivileged children for a whole year. The necessary fund has been raised by IIT Madras through its annual cultural festival Saarang. Saarang is the annual cultural festival of IIT Madras. Every year Saarang has taken up a lot of social awareness programmes such as AkshayaPatra, The Big Plan so as to help improve the society. This year also Saarang continues this tradition through SaarangEunoia, Saarang 2013's newest social cause initiative.
Saarang'13, IIT Madras is organising Choreo Night on the 10th January, 2013, where in students from various colleges participate to showcase their talent. A part of the funds raised from this show would be used to support the above mentioned cause. This campaign culminated at IIT Madras on 13th January, 2013 with 'Dawn to Dusk' run. The 'Dawn to Dusk' run is 10k run which took place within the IIT Madras campus. It was flagged of by the His Excellency Governor of Tamil Nadu, K Rosaiah.
Soham Chokshi, Head of Public Relations, Saarang 2013, quoted 'We thank Smile Foundation for providing us this wonderful opportunity. We look forward to associate with them in the future.'
To know more about Smile Foundation, log onto: -www.smilefoundationindia.org
To know more about Saarang 2013, please visit: - http://www.saarang.org
Notes to Editor
About Smile Foundation:
Smile Foundation is a national level development organisation reaching out to more than 200,000 underprivileged children and youth through more than 185 welfare projects across 25 states of India, on subjects like education, healthcare, livelihood, women empowerment etc.
About Saarang:
Saarang is the annual cultural festival of IIT Madras. Saarang has a footfall of over 50,000 and is ISO 9001:2008 certified, the biggest of its kind in India and attracting a demographic diversity that few can boast of.Saarang has been the stage for popular performers like Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Vishal-Shekhar, SonuNiigaam, Kay Kay, Shaan ,ZakirHussain and also for internationally recognized bands like Pain of Salvation, Opeth , Hammerfall and Vildhjarta. It has also witnessed the lectures of the likes of Kamal Haasan, Shriya Saran, GauthamMenon, ShashiTaroor and ArunShourie.