Walkathon 2020
Walkathon is an annual feature of Walk-for-a-Cause organized by DHAN Foundation on a specific theme for every year. Walkathon is a pan-India event organized on a particular day with a lot of programmes before and after the Walk, engaging the citizens for a common cause, organized across the country, where DHAN has its presence. Walkathon is not just an event organized for creating awareness; rather it calls for concerted action on the issues during and after the event. Initiated as Madurai Marathon in 2007, a Run for Water involving the youth in large numbers subsequently took a shape of Walkathon in 2013, broad basing the event to include people from all walks of life irrespective of age. Since inception, the themes of the event were Water and Conserving Heritage Water Bodies, Anemia Eradication, Climate Change Adaptation, Agricultural Biodiversity, Clean and Green, and Giving forward.
This year the theme is Women Empowerment. It calls for everyone responsibility to empower women through proactive endeavors in collaboration with all the stakeholders. It is only when the women get empowered, the family, community and the nation gets empowered. At DHAN Collective, we are making earnest efforts in empowering the women through our Kalanjiam Community Banking Program in particular and in all thematic program namely Tankfed Agriculture program, Rainfed Program and Costal Agriculture and Livelihood promotion.
The Walkathon is organised simultaneously in 32 districts across India, where DHAN Foundation has been working. The event is organised at the headquarters of 14 districts in Tamil Nadu including Madurai, Ramnad, Theni, Dindigul, Kancheepuram, Krishnagiri, Pudukottai, Tanjore, Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Sivagangai, Tuticorin, Tirupur and Tiruvallur. Also, the Walkathon is organised in five districts of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, two districts in Odisha, five districts in Karnataka, three districts in Maharashtra, two districts in Madhya Pradesh and one district in Assam, . Put together about 200,000 people including SHG women, farmers, fishermen, students from Schools and Colleges, representatives from Government and Private Institutions have participated in the Walkathon.
The Advanced Centre for Enabling Women Empowerment (ACEWE) has spearheaded the event along with the Peoples Movements such as Kalanjiam (Women), Vayalagam (Farmers), and Neidhal (Fishers) Movements. In all these events across the country, local communities in association with the local philanthropies have launched development programmes related to women empowerment.
