Bhoomi Habba- A celebration of humanity
Bhoomi Habba, the annual event organized by Visthar, a 33 year old non-profit organization recently at their campus in Kothanur, Bengaluru, just after the UN Environmental day on June 5th.
Features
Shradha RM
Shradha Rajeev Menon
Bhoomi Habba, the annual event organized by Visthar, a 33 year old non-profit organization recently at their campus in Kothanur, Bengaluru, just after the UN Environmental day on June 5th. The event organized annually for the last 15 years by the Visthar trust, first began as a justice and peace festival but was soon changed into an exhibition celebrating the earth, after the founders felt that the festival did not give enough attention to the environment.
This concept soon gained popularity through word of mouth and the credit for this change goes to Mercy Kappan, one of the members of the board of trustees in Visthar and the coordinator for Bhoomi Habba.“If you keep the focus on earth you can’t not think about people, a celebration of earth is more inclusive, it’s a common heritage.” said Mercy Kappan. “I see it as a multi-art event. There are a whole lot of artistic events happening here including painting, pottery and theatre. It’s not just about the stalls. That being said, the stalls in this fair sell eco-friendly, organic products that promote mainstream agriculture. It is a space where people can come together and inspire one another. Everything here tells a story, a story of thinking differently.” She further added that Bhoomi Habba celebrates the relationship of humans with each other and earth, and spreads a sense of cheer and joy among people.
Students’ participation:
On being asked about the vast number of school students in the festival, David Selvaraj, the founder and executive director of Visthar said that the students were from the neighborhood schools. Visthar believes that they are here to serve the communities and take special attention to cover schools of the society. Each year at least 500 students attend the event and the trust gets people to contribute to ferry students from their school to the Visthar campus.
Apart from Bhoomi Habba, Visthar organizes cultural events such as poetry reading and theatre. The Visthar campus is an academy of culture and contemporary study and their feminist resource centers do training on gender and women's rights. This campus has been conceived and conceptualized as an eco sanctuary which offers programs that have international reach such as courses on gender diversity and social transformation. They even work with over 200 schools for projects tackling problems such as girls at risk for feminist leadership development,
The Bhoomi Habba 2023 concluded hoping to attract more youngsters and all those who are concerned in making our earth a better place.
