Stand Up India: VLCC Anti-Obesity campaign concluded with walkathon

New Delhi: An Anti-Obesity campaign – “Take the Orange Pledge: Stand Up India” – led by VLCC, a prominent beauty and wellness chain, was organised on Tuesday at Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium were 1,500 participants took part in a walkathon to improve their health.

Anti-Obesity campaign started by the Vandana Luthra, Founder, VLCC Group created the buzz and awareness about pitfalls of leading a sedentary lifestyle and dangers of prolonged sitting through their 26-day long pledge campaign.  The campaign concluded with the walkathon yesterday on “Anti-Obesity Day.”

The group joined hands with the government of India, Fit India campaign to urge people to be more active. The aim of the government’s “Fit India Movement” is to make the citizens fit and healthy especially at a time when people are living very fast-paced and an unhealthy lifestyle. VLCC was successful in motivating people to take the pledge to stand up for their health.

Around one million people across the world took pledge under the campaign. The Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs Kiren Rijiju flagged off the Walkathon along with VLCC founder and joined the club of million pledge takers.

Young boys and girls assembled at the venue started the day by joining the Zumba activity on the stage. 1,500 hundred young boys and girls set an example for many who find working out boring. They showed that health goals can be attained by tapping your feet on music.

After the flag-off by the minister, participants joined the walkathon along with founder VLCC to take the first step towards fighting obesity. Walkathon was organised to motivate people to achieve fitness.

Addressing the gathering on the occasion, the minister said, “It is not only the government’s movement against obesity, but people are the main stakeholders to make healthy India. Obesity has become a serious concern especially in urban areas and therefore people need to stand up against it by participating in the campaign.”

Talking to CitySpidey, the minister said, “The government has decided to involve every single school in the movement. Schools will be rated according to the fitness of students. Schools having most healthy students will be given a 5-star rating and fitness award.”

As per reports, obesity is affecting a huge population today across age groups. People affected by obesity may find it very difficult to lose weight and even more difficult to have sustained weight loss. It has also become the major root cause of many serious health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiac problems, joint pains, sleeping disorders, infertility and increased chances of cancer.

VLCC, an Indian Wellness brand, is in the business of creating awareness about obesity and its ill-effects by involving people with different initiatives at different occasions across the region since 2001.

Vandana Luthra, Founder and Co-chairperson of VLCC Group, said, “I have always felt that individuals can be responsible for their well-being only when they have the awareness about how to lead a healthy lifestyle. This was our motivation for launching the annual Anti-Obesity drive initiative 19 years ago. It is now observed in over 150 cities and 14 countries.”

“Taking the Orange Pledge by logging on to www.orangepledge.com is all about agreeing to ‘Stand Up’ against obesity and committing to lead an active, healthy lifestyle,” Luthra said while explaining the theme of 2019 Anti-Obesity campaign.