Daan Utsav is India’s ‘festival of giving’. Launched in 2009, the festival is celebrated annually, commencing on Gandhi Jayanti – from October 2 to 8. The festival brings together people from all walks of life to celebrate ‘giving’. Daan Utsav is an initiative to encourage giving and build ideals of compassion and generosity in everyone.

Like every year we celebrated this festival of giving with full zeal and enthusiasm at all our offices and plants. Numerous volunteers participated across the Group and we have collectively raised over Three Lakh Rupees through various activities conducted during the festival.

During Daan Utsav at Mumbai, a Mega Volunteering Day was held on 6th October where employees came together and volunteered for a ‘Art Paathshaala’ session; teaching children to make paper-bags with the help of newspapers and adopt the practice of reuse, reduce and recycle. This activity also created awareness about maintaining cleanliness in our society. It supported the ‘plastic ban’ to help in reducing waste moving towards a cleaner and greener India.

A khichdi drive was conducted wherein free khichdi was served by Annamrita (ISKCON’s Food Relief Foundation – IFRF). The sanctified meals prepared by Annamrita were appreciated by all the employees, as they got an opportunity to taste the love and devotion with which IFRF prepares meals. Many whole heartedly donated money for the cause so that more children could benefit from the scheme.

Various NGOs were invited across our offices to showcase their wonderful products. The NGO fair provides a platform where NGOs can showcase and sell products as a part of their income generation activities and generate awareness about their work.

Blood donation, eye check-up, books and clothes donation drives were also held.

At Pithampur, cleanliness and tree plantation drive was organized with the objective of contributing towards green and clean environment. Volunteers also conducted storytelling sessions for school children. Storytelling itself is a great way to improve children’s oral fluency. An NGO Mela was held inviting various NGOs to showcase their wonderful products.

At Jambusar, a Swachh Bharat cleanliness drive was held on a large scale. Over 800 volunteers participated with great enthusiasm in maintaining a clean environment around them.

An NGO Mela was held.

At Ahmedabad, a blood donation drive and eye check-up camp was held.

At Mahad, volunteers spent a day at an old age home. They engrossed themselves in entertaining the elderly and bringing precious smiles to their faces. Volunteers also visited a school for visually impaired students. Volunteers interacted with the children and teachers with great enthusiasm and reported that it was a truly eye opening and inspirational experience.

Our focus was to help strengthen our communities—whether it’s helping diverse, underserved groups reach their full potential or assisting community organizations—which in turn helps strengthen our volunteering commitment.

Daan Utsav gives each of us a week to come together and play our part in giving back to society.