NEW DELHI: Union Minister of Youth Affairs & Sports, Anurag Singh Thakur will launch the Nationwide programme of Fit India Freedom Runs 2.0 as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav on 13th August 2021 from Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, New Delhi. Minister of State, Youth Affairs and Sports, Nisith Pramanik will also grace the event. Along with Delhi Fit India Freedom Runs 2.0, programme will be organised in 9 other iconic locations across the country. The iconic locations include Chandrashekhar Azad Park, Allahabad, UP; The Cellular Jail, Port Blair, A&N Islands; Kaza post, Distt. Lahual Spiti, Himachal Pradesh; Gateway of India, Mumbai; Chitralekha Udyan (Cole Park), Tezpur, Assam; Attari Border; Jhansi Railway Station;Leh and Chennai where Fit India Run events are being organized by CRPF, CISF, ITBP, NSG, SSB, BSF, Railways and NYKS . Anurag Thakur will interact virtually with the participants at these locations.

Key Highlight of the event

• Fit India Freedom Run being organized as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav
• Fit India Freedom Runs will be organized in 744 Districts, 75 villages in each of the 744 Districts and 30,000 Educational Institutions across the country
• Through this initiative, more than 7.50 Crore youth and citizens will be reached to take part in the run

In a video message on the eve of the launch of Fit India Freedom Run 2.0, Anurag Thakur said that on the occasion of 75 years of freedom, let us take a pledge to build a healthy India. Only a healthy India can be a Strong, Atmanirbhar and New India. He urged one and all to come forward and make it a people’s movement  and adopt the mantra “FITNESS KI DOSE AADHA GHANTA ROZ”.

Each week programmes will be held in 75 districts and at 75 villages in each district till 2nd October 2021. Thus, Fit India Freedom Runs will be organized in 744 Districts, 75 villages in each of the 744 Districts and 30,000 Educational Institutions across the country. Through this initiative, more than 7.50 Crore youth and citizen will be reached to take part in the run.

The aim of the campaign is to encourage people to take up fitness activities such as running and sports in their daily lives and get freedom from obesity, laziness, stress, anxiety, diseases etc. Through this campaign, citizens will be given call to make a resolve to include physical activity of at least 30 minutes daily in their lives “FITNESS KI DOSE AADHA GHANTA ROZ”.

The key activities of Fit India Freedom Run 2.0 include pledge, rendering of National Anthem, Freedom Run, cultural functions at venues, awareness among Youth Volunteers to participate and also organize similar Freedom Runs in their villages. People can register and upload their run on Fit India portal https://fitindia.gov.in and promote freedom run on their social media channels with #Run4India and #AzadikaAmritMahotsav.

Prominent people, Public Representatives, PRI leaders, social workers, sports persons, media personalities, doctors, farmers and Army personnel are being requested to participate, encourage and motivate the people by gracing these events at various levels. Events will be organized physically and virtually all across the country by following the COVID-19 protocols.

Central Government Ministries, States Governments and other Organizations have been requested to conduct physical/virtual Freedom Run events throughout the campaign till 2nd October 2021. To make the campaign people driven, efforts are being made to encourage friends, families and peer groups etc to participate in the event in the maximum.

‘Fit India Freedom Run’ was conceived last year in the wake of COVID-19 Pandemic when social distancing became ‘new normal lifestyle, so as to keep the imperative need of fitness active even while following the social distancing norms, Fit India Freedom Run was launched on the concept of virtual run i.e. ‘it can be run anywhere, anytime! You run a route of your choice, at a time that suits you. Basically, you run your own race and time your own pace’.

The first edition of the campaign was organized from 15th August to 2nd October, 2020. More than 5 Crore people from Central/State Departments and organizations including Central Armed Forces, NGOs, Private Organizations, Schools, Individuals, Youth Clubs participated and covered around 18 crore kms distance.