Kill The Cancer - An Unnati Silks Initiative Towards Positive Change

Kill the Cancer! An initiative that saw 53 colleges and close to a lakh students being part of an event that completed as a competition, but was the beginning of Unnati Silks’ crusade against cancer.

Unnati Silks has always believed in contributing to good causes, especially those that have a bearing on the mental health and well-being of members of Indian society at large. Cancer and its significant spread has been a subject of concern to countries across the world for quite some time now, and has also had Mr. Devender Gopal Ladha, Pioneer and CEO of Unnati Silks wondering how Team Unnati could make its own small but positive contribution in the fight against this real menace.

Unnati Silks has been dealing with textiles, especially handlooms, since 1980. So how did Mr.Ladha get the idea about Cancer and want to do something about it?

In Mr.Devender Ladha’s own words, "Kill the Cancer is the end result of an idea after years of personal interaction with youngsters. I have been observing the youth, who are dear to me, since a long time, and I like many others, believe that they hold the key to a good and strong India. Our country has the largest population of youth in the world and given their talent and guided correctly early enough would be a force to reckon with in the years ahead.

It is not that they are not already meritorious and in the reckoning with the best in the world, but because our society in its progress forward has also acquired many of the ills of a fast-paced life like drugs, smoking, consumption of alcohol, stress and related diseases, excessive consumption of fast foods and obesity, and a host of others, that have the maximum indulgence and claim of victims amongst those in the youth-filled years.

Whenever I read or come across in the media of some unfortunate incidents involving the youth that is undesirable and should not have happened in the natural course of events, I feel sorry about a life being wasted and not suitably guided to realizing its potential".

The event that happened

Kill the Cancer – the Unnati Silks - ISKCON initiative bore fruit when the competition that started on Feb.4th, 2018 ended with a well-fought elocution final, conducted live on March 27th in the exquisitely designed studios of one of the leading TV channels of the state, CVR Health. It provided the requisite space and atmosphere to make it a grand finish of an exciting event that was aired subsequently on several channels.

The final was a last 15 affair judged by the Principals of 4 of the 53 colleges that had participated and a subject matter judge in the form of the Consultant Surgical Oncologist of Yashoda Hospitals Dr.CN Sreekanth. City actor Aashish Raj Bidkikar of YRF film Daawat-e-Ishq was the guest of honor, while Smt. Anusha, Head of South Central Railways, IRES was the Dy.Guest of Honor.

The top two children got their prizes in the form of laptops and the third got an Amazon Kindle, all sponsored by Unnati Silks, the official sponsor of the event. All the 15 finalists got a trophy and a certificate from ISKCON.

The event was conducted by ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), in joint collaboration with JNTU (Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University), Hyderabad, with the involvement of the NSS (National Student Service), the government wing for social activities involving students. The lone sponsor was Unnati Silks.

When asked why he wanted to have this event, this was Mr.Ladha’s reply:

"It struck me that we could do something that would involve thousands of students, get the message across effectively and also allow society to reap the dividends. The thought of an interesting event in the form of a competition could get their whole-hearted participation, occurred. An elocution competition launched on the occasion of World Cancer Day on February 4th with the theme of cancer seemed a good idea.

We have been active since many years with interactive seminars and lectures on depression, anger management etc., subjects that are relevant to professional managers with years of experience in their fields of expertise but unable to cope up with the turbulence in their lives and strive to find ways to balance life and experience harmony in their existence.

For the past twenty five years, both in my personal capacity and as part of ISKCON, I have been conducting the Geeta Summer Camp. I have a deep love for children and believe that children need emotional strengthening and a bonding with their own culture at an age when they are still pliable, so that they would turn out to be moral human beings of solid worth. The camp activities involve narration of stories with morals, games and other interesting activities that would keep the children involved and in a mood to develop their personality".

So could the elocution competition be considered a success?

Mr.Devender Ladha simply smiled and said, "Yes. Phenomenal, since it exceeded our expectations.

In fact I was a little surprised when somebody from the media mentioned that this was one of the biggest events in recent years concerning students that touched upon a social issue in such novel fashion that made it even more effective through the wide coverage and exposure on the subject.

The beneficiaries were the students that heard the lectures and presentations, the staff, the parents, visitors, and an even wider audience – the general public through the vast media exposure during each venue contest.

The event galvanized many a participant and from those in the audience into taking the theme seriously, poring over the in-depth material provided during the competition and paying attention during the valuable sharing from persons who had had first-hand experience about the travails of a victim of cancer and the pain that the rest of the family members went through".

He mentioned of heart rending accounts of first-hand experience on the horrific outcomes of cancer in the interactive sessions. One young girl narrated about the loss of her father, uncle and own brother through cancer from smoking and chewing tobacco. All had been bread earners for the family. Another boy spoke of how he lost his mother to her bad habits of having betel nut and drinking alcohol. Yet another shared about a close friend’s uncle dying of liver cirrhosis through excessive liquor consumption.

Such first-hand accounts had had their effect on the audience too; many who cared went on to ask more from the person about the details, in the informal gatherings after each session.

"Based on the statistics about cancer in India, it would definitely prompt quite a number of souls from those who had attended to do some soul-searching about some member within the family, relatives and friends based upon their bad habits of drinking, smoking, tobacco chewing etc. to explore silently and maybe even counsel those who mattered to them, in their own way", he reflected.

Well what would he and his team be doing in the future?

"This was just a start of a long journey in our fight towards Cancer. We are already in touch with other like-minded souls and working towards collaborative efforts in chalking out other initiatives to work on in the near future.

Believe me, when there is sincerity in the effort, a fair amount of success is bound to follow. This is our belief and what we have experienced in our journey so far".

For us, ‘Kill the Cancer’ has begun on a nice note especially with a young population keen on the theme. We expect that through sharing and positive action on behalf of all those who had come in touch with the subject during the period of the contest, the message of cancer and its ill-effects, would themselves further spread the awareness and make many an individual reflect and actually want to bring a positive change in his or her lifestyle".

Just in Passing:

What are the alarming things about cancer in India?

• It is estimated that nearly 8 million people would die of cancer during the year. Left unchecked, the number of deaths would increase to 13.2 million per year by 2030.
• One woman dies of cervical cancer every 8 minutes in India.
• As many as 2,500 persons die every day due to tobacco-related diseases in India.
• Smoking accounts for 1 in 5 deaths among men and 1 in 20 deaths among women, accounting for an estimated 9,30,000 deaths in 2010.
• Estimated number of people living with cancer in India: around 2.5 million
• Every year, new cancer patients registered: Over 7 lakh
• Cancer-related deaths: 5,56,400

I am Priya Maheshwari. I am currently with Unnati Silk Prints Pvt.Ltd., in its Senior Managagement Cadre and have been with the organization since the last 5 years.