Unlike other competitive sports, Marathon is an intensely personal experience and has been becoming popular over the years. The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM) is among the top ten marathons in the world. SCMM also provides a charity platform to non-profit organizations / NGO’s to raise funds through United Way of Mumbai their Philanthropy Partner in the 14th edition of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2017.

Apart from raising funds the participating NGO’s also get opportunity to create awareness by participating in dream run, here promote their cause through eye catching costumes, banners, stalls, live performances etc. One thing that a spectator will realize after watching these NGOs talking and promoting their cause is that Poverty alone is not a comprehensive marker of deprivation. In fact ethnicity, gender, religion, place of residence, disability status, age, HIVAIDS status, sexual orientation or other stigmatized markers, confer disadvantage that excludes people from a range of processes and opportunities.

For those who could not be present at the venue I am sharing here some photographs of the event. As you would see from the photographs below, SCMM 2017 witnessed plethora of creative organizations promoting social inclusion for improving the terms for individuals and groups to take part in society.

A man dressed with oxygen cylinder and mask tried to show dangers of air pollution

A man painted himself in combination of black and white paint with currency stuck on his body to draw attention towards issue of black money and corruption.

Man dressed in green leaves like costume actually did not convey any clear message about his cause.

A Man dressed as woman wanted to convey message that we should not label people based on their sexual orientation.

People of Amar Seva Sangam were seeking support for disabled.

A company called Godrej supported war disabled person

Epilepsy Foundation sought to promote awareness that Epilepsy is treatable.

The Dream run also saw people dressed as bees seeking support for insects and bees.

School kids promoted awareness on Autism.

Since India has lot of motor accidents some people were promoting safe driving.

There was one group carrying a huge banner Light of life trust. They certainly were eye catching but could not convey any message.

Among all these came a huge prop in shape of Python and that caught attention of all. The group really did a commendable job in this event. They were highlighting the issue of biased laws and policies. Not just the prop they were carrying was exceptional but also the banners and slogans mentioned on them interested the crowd. The Python had the issues faced by men written all over it like Misandry, Domestic Violence on Men, Male suicides, Child alienation, Protector provider role, Child Labour, False Rape and molestation, Patriarchy, False Dowry Case, Rape on Male, Section 377 misuse, Maintenance, Alimony etc.

In fact not just the spectators but also the participants got fascinated by this groups creativity.

Also the group was carrying interesting banners so even the event participants stopped by them to click photographs and selfie with them.

Standered Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2017 will also be remembered for this team.