250 Plus Cops joined in the 5K Run ‘HEALTHY MANGALURU’ to bring Awareness on Healthy Life
Mangaluru: Living together with everything that’s good for you! For the FIRST time in Mangaluru, a 5K Run named ‘HEALTHY MANGALURU’, which was the initiative of Additional Director General of Police, Karnataka State Reserve Police, Bengaluru, Alok Kumar IPS, was organized this morning Thursday 15 October ar 7 am from Mangala Stadium and culminating back at the Stadium. The purpose of the 5 K run was to bring awareness on Covid-19 and also to live a healthy life through exercises, diet food etc.
What is the one thing that Indians need to beat before they can succeed in combating any disease? Be it cancer, depression or COVID-19, we first need to fight the social stigma associated with all such ailments. As we stand at the threshold of fighting a highly contagious virus, we cannot import Western models of health communication and apply them blindly in the Indian context. We need to take Indian socio-cultural factors into account while formulating campaigns to fight COVID-19. To fight a virus at this scale, people need to beat stigma and social ostracizing at every level.
While many Mangaloreans were still in bed, nearly 250 plus cops belonging to 7th Battalion of Karnataka State Reserve Police-DK, Mangaluru City Police and Dakshina Kannada Police arrived at the Mangala stadium to take part in the 5K run ‘Healthy Mangaluru’, which was flagged off by ADGP Alok Kumar- the run proceeded from Mangala Stadium via Mannagudda, Kudroli, Dongerekere, PVS Circle, M G Road, Lady Hill, and culminating at the Stadium. Police Commissioner of Mangaluru-Vikash Kumar, Superintendent of DK-B MLaxmi Prasad, IGP Western Range-Seemanth Kumar Singh, MRPL General Manager-Krishna Hegde, DGM of ONGC- Muralidharan, also joined in the Run. Family members of the police personnel and other citizens of Mangaluru also took part in the Run.
Prior to the Run, the participants were seen holding placards with messages like-“Health is Wealth”; If Health is Lost, Everything is Lost”; A Healthy Body holds a Healthy Soul”; Quit Drugs-Choose Life-Drugs are a Death Trap”; were among many awareness messages on healthy life displayed. All those who participated in the 5K run received a medal and a certificate from ADGP Alok Kumar, and among them was 76-year-old Michael D’souza, who is a retired Engineer from NMPT. The Run was organized by B M Prasad- Commandant at 7th Battalion KSRP of DK.
76-year-old Michael D’souza- a Retd NMPT Engineer at the 5K Finish Line
Addressing the gathering Alok Kumar said, “Apart from your routine job, you should also involve yourselves in sports, do exercises and adhere to healthy diet food, in order to keep you FIT and HEALTHY. Look how fit and healthy are the personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force, Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, and you should follow in their footsteps to remain that way. Remember if you are healthy and fit, it’s good also for your family. Covid-19 is not only a risk for your life, because there are other illness like Diabetes, Cancer, etc which may kill you”
“Therefore taking care of your health is very important. In Bengaluru many health awareness events were organized like Fit Bengaluru, Fit India, Fit KSRP, and I thought why not have a Healthy Mangaluru event to bring awareness among you all on health and life. You don’t have to be too old to have illness and die, because recently a 27-year-old police officer died of heart attack. Death can come anytime, therefore taking precautions about your health is a must. Now that we are stuck in the pandemic, people with serious symptoms like BP, Diabetes and other serious ailments should be careful about Covid-19. But only through precautions you can beat Coronavirus, and only through exercising, regular diet and healthy food etc you can have a healthy life. Take a pledge that you will exercise, eat healthy food, take up sports, and live a good and healthy life” added Alok Kumar.
The vote of thanks was delivered by B M Prasad- Commandant of 7th Battalion of KSRP of DK, and the event was professionally and meticulously compered by Physical Director-Thyagam Harekala of Mangaluru.
