The Hindu Business Line : Organisers of <I>Bal Vividha</I> want to raise fund corpus

A POPULAR festival for children, showcasing alternative approaches to learning, wants to raise a corpus of funds to both sustain itself on a long-term basis and enable easier access to participants.

Among avenues being explored, is support from suitable corporates.

The twelfth `Bal Vividha,' organised by Comet Media Foundation, is slated for June 4-6 at Dongri in the city. Highlights this time include a dozen `interactive corners' where children are exposed to hands-on experience in a variety of activities ranging from pottery to spray painting, a film festival and a `rangmanch' with open-air performances.

Comet is a voluntary organisation involved in producing communication materials on themes related to science and development since 1985.

According to Ms Patricia Mascerenhas, co-ordinator of the festival, Comet began the bal vividha series in 1998. Of the 11 festivals held so far, three were in Gujarat, and the rest in Mumbai.

Depending on location and time of event, attendance at bal vividha varied from 12,000 people over four days for the last one at Malad, to 22,000 over three days in February at Vadodara.

The voluntary organisation currently has an understanding with the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, whereby the latter takes the tab for administration and personnel expense for 15 festivals, five of which are already over.

This cover typically meets 50 per cent of a festival's overall cost, the balance being Comet's onus to assemble.

In the case of small festivals, Ms Mascerenhas said, the gap can be bridged by partnering a local body, the Educational Development Board (EDB) being such a partner for the upcoming festival at Dongri.

For the bigger events, a separate corpus requires to be in place.

"We get limited if we have limited funds. It can certainly grow to be a better festival," she said.

While future plans include taking the festival to other parts of Maharashtra (Lathur and Pune on the cards), one of the fallouts of an adequately funded bal vividha is likely lowering of cost to the participant.

At present, the organisers charge no entry fee but a small price has to be paid for taking part in specialised workshops.

This fee can be reduced if a corpus to support the festival is put in place.

Comet has been working on the corpus, creating it through donations.

Ms Mascerenhas said an amount of Rs 5 lakh is thus available to help the festival for a year.

However, the organisers need it on a continuing basis to ensure that bal vividha is self-supporting in the long run.

Corporates are an option, provided their business and products are ethically acceptable to the world of children.

Anyone interested?

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