The District Kudumbashree Mission has launched a talent hunt among its over-three lakh Neighbourhood Group (NHG) members who are largely confined to their homes during the lockdown.
The hunt is to find the best singer, poet and photographer at the district level with the singing contest getting under way on Wednesday. The contest will last till April 5, which will be then followed by poetry writing contest from April 5 to 20 and photography contest from April 10 to 25.
“The brainstorming to evolve a concept to engage all our NHG members in a productive way during this lockdown led us to this talent hunt. They could either use this as a diversion from their domestic pressures during this tough time or as an opportunity to explore their creative side and recoup their forgotten talents they had given up in the face of daily rigours of life,” said Shine T. Money, district programme manager (gender).
Participants of all three contests will have to send their entries to the official WhatsApp groups of their respective Community Development Societies (CDSs). Groups were formed for all 101 CDSs to dispense communications on Covid-19-related activities. Those participating in singing and poem writing contests will have to send eight lines of their singing and poems on any chosen subject to these groups. Similarly, photography contestants should send photographs on model activities during the lockdown.
CDS members will choose the best in all three categories and the 14 block coordinators will further select the best in each block. The district-level contests will be held after the lockdown and winners will be given cash awards.
“As soon as we publicised the contest, we started getting a lot of inquiries from other districts, especially Idukki and Kottayam. So, efforts are now on to turn it into a State-wide initiative,” said Mr. Money.