On 12th October 2015 Durgapur Adda Facebook group members on the occasion of ‘Mahalaya’ which marks the beginning of Durga Puja, distributed 430 new saris to distressed women. Wearing new saris during Durga Puja is a tradition among all Bengalis. Keeping this custom in mind, we chose to gift new sari to those women for whom buying a new sari is a hard-to-think task.
It was indeed one of the most challenging and painstaking task which the organisation has undertook since its inception. The challenge lies on arranging money for buying 400 plus new saris and the task was ‘painstaking’ because choosing the most deserving candidate needed lots of roaming, surveying and analyzing.
Durgapur Adda Facebook group members took up this challenge within two months of its formation and achieved unimaginable success. Though the group doesn’t have any religious belief and inclination, but Durga Puja being the most popular festival of the Bengali’s this particular initiative was drawn to bring smile in the faces of the elderly women.
Apart from approaching friends, relatives and known ones, all the members of Durgapur Adda Facebook group undertook massive campaign in Facebook for financial support, so that we can bring some smile in the faces of these distressed women, for whom life is miserable.
Teams of Durgapur Adda visited several slums and villages in and around Durgapur, and after thorough survey listed names of those who are in real wretched state.
Arrangement were made to bring the listed women from length and breadth of the city of Durgapur and ensemble them at BidhanBhavan, Durgapur Steel Township.
After distributing 400 odd new saris to these women along with a packet of lunch, Durgapur Adda members visited Durgapur Railway Station and Piyala Kali Temple to distribute the rest of the saris to the female beggars there.
Paresh Chandra Nath, the physically challenged Durgapur mountaineer who attempted to scale the Everest peak previous year was invited to lit up the candle and mark the beginning of the programme. Paresh Chandra Nath later in 2017 died in his attempt of reaching Everest summit.
Several other distinguished personalities of Durgapur were also present on the occasion.
There was arrangement of ‘Self Paid’ lunch for all the members at the end of the programme.