The textile factory takes a memorial lap

As the yesteryear glory, Indu Mills in Dadar gets ready for the final demolition for the construction of a grand memorial to Babasaheb Ambedkar, Sunday, 9th July witnessed a nostalgic run by the Textile fraternity. Some 2,000 odd runners from across the city, 50 cotton growing farmers from Vidarbha and Maharashtra, alumni of the Sasmira Institute of Textiles, family members of forgotten textile workers, Star Runners and more came together for the heritage run hosted by Sasmira Alumni Foundation (SAF). The cause NO NAKED CHILD was a unique initiative which aims to provide clothing to under-privileged children across the country which was an effort to galvanise the alumni and others from the textile industry in a unique way to execute the world’s 1st Textile Community Run, Texathon.

The event was attended by Ms. Kavita Gupta, textile commissioner of India, who shared, “I am happy that SAF has put together this first of its kind event which throws light on two key aspects, — the cause of No Naked Child which means clothing for the under-privileged through the run and other is physical fitness which takes a back seat in this otherwise glamorous world.”

Texathon” was run at distances of 10k, 5k, 3.5k respectively. The run traversed scenic parts of Mumbai covering the Indu Mills, Cadell Rd, Kirti College and Catering College junctions, old bungalow of David Sassoon, Century Bazaar, Mayor’s Bungalow at Shivaji Park etc. The run commenced and ended at one of the heritage mills of Mumbai, Indu Mills Compound. The 10k run was won by Swapnil Sawant with a time of 35.20 mins. He was followed by Sachin Grote in the second and Ashish Sapkal in the third place. In the women’s race, Varsha Bhawari came first, followed by Simta Sharma  and Shweta Gawade. Aghorilal Chauhan (69) and Gurzarilal Chandra (62) are two farmers who came out to support the cause, Gurzarilala Chandra clocked the 4th fastest time period of the race.

“It’s a proud moment for us, since we, the textile fraternity could curate this beautiful thought of the Texathon. The team over the last few months has been working religiously towards th egarment collection drive and have managed to raise a sizeable amount of clothing,” shared Sharad Tandon, the president for SAF.

The event also saw participation of 50 cotton growing farmers from Marathwada and Vidarbha areas of Maharashtra. The event thereafter saw the farmers learning about the latest trends in technology serving the growing textile industry. SAF facilitated the visit of this farmer community to the Government of India designated, “Centre of Excellence for agro-textile” at the Sasmira campus in Worli.

SAF has reached out to many helping hands to give their surplus clothing to the No Naked Child cause, the contributions of which will be given to Goonj, a national NGO founded by Anshu Gupta who said, “For us, the issue was that clothing was never considered an issue, despite being in the list of three basic needs of human kind. Goonj     uses clothes as a resource for the have not. I wish Texathon all the best for the campaign and we are certainly happy to work together on this campaign.”