Indians Apply A Humanitarian Desi Tweak To The Ice Bucket Challenge

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has proven to be a great example of self-propelled marketing techniques. People all over the world are eagerly drenching themselves in ice-cold water to show their support to the ALS community. Multitudes have offered cash donation to the organization that works for raising ALS awareness. However, there are many who strongly believe that wasting water to avoid donating is a rather wasteful practice, while others are opposing the very core of the challenge, since it promotes something far more sinister.

Indians on the other hand, have come up with a unique twist to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, that circumvents all its alleged pitfalls. Inspired by the global charity chain to spread awareness about the disease ALS, Hyderabad-based Manju Latha Kalanidhi had come up with an ingenious way to help those in need with the Rice Bucket Challenge. Her unique, though apt for the poor community challenge, has gone viral in the south Asian country and is being described as “Indian version for Indian needs,” on its Facebook page.

What is the Rice Bucket Challenge? Rather than going through the painful ordeal of pouring ice-cold water or forking out cash, those who accept the challenge have to cook or buy a bucket of rice and feed someone who needs it, reported The Independent. There’s nothing complicated to the act of donating rice. Moreover, just like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, one should use the hashtag – #RiceBucketChallenge and ask their friends to pay it forward. Pictures of the act can be posted to Facebook, but it is important to use the #RiceBucketChallenge tag.

If donating rice isn’t your thing, people can choose to donate medicines worth Rs. 100 ($1.8) to their nearest government hospital, reported Time. Manju Latha Kalanidhi, a journalist from Hyderabad, India is being attributed to have kick-started the spin-off. Speaking about the same, she said,

“My own local, practical and tangible version/response to #IceBucketChallenge… save water feed the hungry!”

This Indian twist has created quite a stir online and participants are already posting their pictures to spread this new message. So far, the page has exceeded 50,000 likes. The donors, who have proudly posted photos of their charitable act, hail from all parts of the country and abroad. They comprise students and teachers, young and old, rich and poor, celebrities and ordinary people. The biggest single donation has so far come from a degree college in Karimnagar on Wednesday when 2,000 students donated 2,200 kilos of rice.

The Rice Bucket Challenge is now challenging the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge on the Indian web-space. Though the internet community has been eagerly accepting the Ice Bucket Challenge, could the endeavor to feed the hungry, catch on too?

[Image Credit | Facebook by @Rice Bucket Challenge]