Participants have fun, raise funds

The Mumbai marathon has always been about more than just sporting action. From runners donning colourful costumes and families running hand-in-hand to celebrities promoting social causes, a large chunk of the event’s charm has always been in the peripheral activities.

While this year registered a visible increase in the number of families running together, the event also saw a myriad social causes, ranging from quirky or contentious to inspirational, being promoted.

With a separate format, the Dream Run aimed just at promoting worthy causes, several social issues caught the attention of the runners and the on-looking public, even in the absence of star-presence. Some of the causes that caught the public imagination included a campaign to promote volunteerism by Lighthouse, an NGO run by entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala’s daughter Trishya, a campaign directed at promoting men’s rights and several individual efforts to promote environmental conservation.

Speaking about her NGO Lighthouse, Ms Screwvala said, “The idea behind Lighthouse is not just to make volunteering much easier than what it is perceived to be, but at the same time making it more cool and fun. There are so many of us, who are looking for avenues to help in the upliftment of society outside of our individual spheres and are willing to expend the time and energy necessary but could not because of constraints. And Lighthouse gives them just the opportunity to explore their energies constructively.”

While the marathon proved to be a perfect place to promote volunteerism, one of the other interesting causes was a campaign organised by social community organisation Vastav, aimed at fighting for men’s rights. Some of the other causes that gained traction at the event were those aimed at autism awareness, which was supported by celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, a campaign against terrorism and Islamophobia by a Muslim community group and various other causes and individual efforts such as nature conservation, clean India and even the ‘give-up LPG subsidy’ campaign.