• The competition was hosted as part of the fourth edition of the Brown Ribbon Art Festival that is organized every year in Faridabad
• This year’s theme was aligned with the ongoing Save Soil campaign by Isha Foundation of Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

 Sarvodaya Hospital, Faridabad’s premier healthcare institution, joined hands with Manav Rachna Educational Institutions to organize the Brown Ribbon Art Festival 4.0. Hosted at the varsity’s Faridabad campus, the annual art event, in its fourth year now, saw more than a 1,000 people from all age groups participate in a painting competition to increase awareness about the importance of preserving soil fertility.

Said Dr. Rakesh Gupta, Chairman, Sarvodaya Healthcare: “The painting competition was organized in association with Isha Foundation, founded by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, as part of its ongoing ‘Save Soil’

campaign. The idea was to increase awareness about preserving soil fertility and rally people from Faridabad behind this environmental cause. I am delighted that over a 1,000 people from Delhi-NCR participated in the competition and eagerly sought information about soil fertility and what can be done by everyone to preserve it.”

He added: “Sarvodaya Hospital is committed to creating a healthy society and country in all aspects. The issue of soil fertility has not been a part of public discourse in India so far, even though it is critical for human survival. We dedicated the fourth edition of the Blue Ribbon Art Festival to this important but barely discussed theme. Participants were given topics like importance of soil for the world and how to save it holistically. We are greatly encouraged by the enormous turnout of people at the event who drew paintings with great enthusiasm.”

Said Dr. Amit Bhalla, Vice President of Manav Rachna Educational Institutions: “Competitions like these offer dual benefits to the society. They not only offer a public platform to budding artists but also go a long way in creating social awareness about an important cause. While we are all getting increasingly aware about environmental issues and global warming, it is worrying that our soil is losing its fertility and key stakeholders are largely ignorant about this. If things continue like this, the day is not far when nothing will grow on our soil and or species heads towards extinction. The Brown Ribbon Art Festival was therefore built this year around the important theme of decreasing soil fertility.”

All participants were assigned themes according to their age group for the paintings. These included “Soil is Life: We have to save it” (up to 7-year-old); “Soil: The Golden Gift of God” (8-13 year old); and “Healthy Soil: Healthy Future” (14-18 year old). Those between 19-24 years got an opportunity to paint their thoughts on the theme of “Magic of Soil.” Three prominent soil specialists were invited at the event to choose the winners.

This is the fourth edition of the Brown Ribbon Art Festival jointly organized every year by Sarvodaya Hospital and Manav Rachna Educational Institutions. The earlier three editions focused on painting competitions on issues like breast cancer and saving the environment.