Kapil Dev, ace wrestler Sushil Kumar, ace shooter Vikram Bhatnagar and Indian mountaineer Santosh Yadav Flag off Ekal Mini Marathon
Ekal perfectly combining sports with studies
—Kapil Dev
THOUSANDS
of rural folk, including Vanvasis, participated in a marathon organised
in New Delhi on January 13 to spread awareness about education and also
to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. Veteran
cricketer Kapil Dev, ace wrestler Sushil Kumar, ace shooter Vikram
Bhatnagar and Indian mountaineer Santosh Yadav flagged off the premier
marathon at Talkatora Indoor Stadium. The event saw the presence of
around 3,000 people participating in various sub-events involving a
distance run of 5.5 kilometres. The total number of runners including
veterans, youths, women, urban and rural were more than 5000. Explaining
the cause of the marathon, general secretary of Ekal Abhiyan, Shri
Praveen Arya, hailed the initiative that has been turned into a
movement. “The movement was started from one rural school in tribal belt
of south Bihar, where functional literacy is being provided but with
the passage of time, we realised that a lot more is to be done in terms
of providing value and health and overall development of the village.
This initiative has been now transformed into Ekal movement, wherein we
are making relentless efforts to mainstream tribal villages,” he said.
He also said that the objective of the marathon was to get rural folk
goined with the mainstream creating awareness about education and rural
development. The event was organised by Bharat Lok Shiksha Parishad to
mark the beginning of 25th year of Ekal Abhiyaan rendering selfless
service through Ekal Vidyalayas based on five tier functional education
for the holistic development of tribal and rural Bharat. On the occasion
of silver jubilee celebration, all the partner organisations of Ekal
movement including the Friends of Tribal Society, Ekal Vidyalaya
Foundation of India, Shrihari Satsang Samiti, Prantiya Seva Sangathan,
Arogya Foundation participated in full strength.“We belong to a village
and have never come to a big city like this. We have been able to come
here through the courtesy of Ekal Vidyalaya, which is doing a good work.
I would like to urge all children who need education to join the
institution,” said Rajat, one of the participants from Jharkhand. Ekal
Vidyalaya officials along with other dignitaries presented accolades and
prize money to the winners.
Cricketer Kapil Dev spoke on the importance of education. “People should
have the motivation to study and our country’s children must get the
right to education. This is my biggest belief. It is good to combine
sports with studies,” he said. National chairperson of women's wing of
Bharatiya Lok Shiksha Parishad, Sonal Rasiwasia hailed the event. “Lots
of students are here, they have not even seen either Delhi, metro or
train. They have come here and running here altogether with everybody.
And hence, they are feeling so good,” she said. The Ekal Vidyalaya
organisation are tax free, registered non-profit service organisation,
which is dedicated to education and village progress in rural India. Its
motive is to take a holistic approach to social and economic
development. Reportedly, the Ekal movement is the largest grassroots
non-government education movement in India, operating in over 46,734
villages and educating over 13,28,118 children in rural India. The
formal launching of the silver Jubilee year of Ekal was also done in the
evening.
