Beat Plastic & Water Pollution Panel Highlights Safaigir Awards

9 OCTOBER 2019, NEW DELHI:  The highlight of the India Today Aaj Tak’s Annual SafaiGiri Awards wasn’t just the fact that the Global Interfaith WASH Alliance (GIWA) was presented with the Best Sanitation Institute Award for work that the organization has done to bring faith into action for water, sanitation and hygiene.  Rather, it was the experts, opinion-makers and pundits that appeared afterwards for the Beat Plastic & Water Pollution that drew a significant portion of the media’s attention.  

One reason was the informative address offered by Sadhvi Bhagawati Saraswatiji, Secretary-General of GIWA, who began, “If I ask everyone in this room to raise their hand if they want to protect and preserve water, naturally everybody is going to raise their hands. We understand water is life. But, in the over twenty years I have been here in India, we have gone from being vegetarian to being non-vegetarian. The amount of water that goes into the production of one meal of beef is the same amount of water you use in bathing for six months. But, is anyone actually prepared to refrain from bathing for six months? Are we really ready to make the decisions that need to be made to give-up the things that we’ve chosen to now bring into our lives to actually save that water?  This is why the work of Ganga Action Parivar is so important, because it draws attention to the vital lifeline that our waterways, particularly Mother Ganga, provide, and the vital role that they play in our lives”

The event concluded with the Hon’ble President of India sharing his message to the nation on the occasion of 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi. Celebrity Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar was awarded the Most Effective Sanitation Ambassador Award. The power packed event included a special address by the Hon’ble Urban Development Minister, Shri Hardeep Singh Puriji, blessings by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudevji of the Isha Foundation and had celebrity performances and call to action by Badshah, Kailash Kher and many other eminent luminaries, individuals and institutions who have provided noteable contributions to create a Swachh and Sundar (Clean and Beautiful) India.