A lot has been written about the Indian “Rice Bucket Challenge”

Started by Journalist Manju Kalanidhi, the challenge involves you donating a Kilo of Rice to a needy person. Then just like the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, you have to nominate someone else for it.

Now so far in Hyderabad itself, many people have taken on this challenge. A college in Kaminnagar actually  had the highest donations as more than 2000 students donated almost 2000 kgs of rice. Many local Hyderabad celebrities have joined the challenge and there were plans to rope in Satya Nadella and Jwala Gutta. The challenge had almost 64,000 people talking about it on Facebook.

Now based on this people in Kolkatta are using the Rice Bucket Challenge to donate food for the people of Kashmir affected by the floods.

So why does India  need the Rice Bucket Challenge ?

Let me go back to the most prominent problem in India Tuberculosis.

As discussed in my previous post, it is more of a social problem than a medical problem.

People who get affected by tuberculosis lose their jobs and hence are unable to provide for themselves. But fortunately for them the appetite of these patients goes down and they are able to sustain with very minimal food.

But once they go for the treatment this changes. The first implication that the treatment is working is that the appetite goes up. But as they have lost their jobs they are not able to meets the nutritional requirements of the system. The government hospitals in India provide free medicines but not free food.

So a lot of these patients stop taking the pills which leads to incomplete treatment and thence relapse.

I think if the “Rice Bucket Challenge ” is directed at the TB patients not only will it help the patients but also create a social awareness of the situation.

I think a good movement in the right spirit could definitely go a long way in solving this issue…