India is a country that prides itself in upholding its sacred traditions. Over 10 million weddings take place every year. Rice is an extremely auspicious part of every wedding ceremony. Every guest who attends the wedding is given a fist full of rice to shower upon the newlyweds as a symbol of their blessing. At least 2 to 5 kilograms of rice are used at every wedding, adding up to an annual total of 20 to 50 million kilograms. Once showered, this rice is swept away and thrown.

In this same India, 195 million people are left undernourished and struggle to find food every single day.

There are two sides to India. One where over 10 million weddings take place every year. Every wedding ceremony is a sequence of sacred rituals and customs, one of them being the showering of rice on the newlywed couple as a symbol of blessing. Every wedding guest is given a fist full of rice to be showered. Adding up to approximately 20 to 50 million kilograms of rice being showered as blessings, which is then swept away and thrown.

The other side is one where 195 million people live in poverty-stricken conditions, and struggle to find one meal a day.

India Dega Aashirvad is a collaboration between India Gate Basmati Rice and Feeding India Foundation to empower millions across the country with a simple way of upholding this sacred tradition while helping millions living in poverty.

We created special packs that can be distributed to wedding guests instead of a fist full of rice. Thus, giving guests a choice to either shower the small amount of rice in the pack, or merely touch the pack as a symbol of their blessing.

Betrothed couples, families, or wedding planners can log on to www.indiadegaaashirvad.com, where these packs are made available in exchange for the rice that would otherwise be used to shower the couple during the wedding ceremony.

The selected packs are delivered to the wedding venue, and the rice collected in return is turned into meals for the underprivileged.

The unopened packs are also collected and kept in circulation.

Getting millions of people to bring about a change in a custom that is as old as time itself is a monumental task.

So we decided to start with reaching out to the most sought after wedding planners and venues in the country. Encouraging them to offer these packs as an optional offering in their wedding packages.

They encouraged couples and their families to be a part of this movement by logging onto the website and selecting their choice of packs equalling to the number of guests attending the wedding.

In return, they had to donate the rice purchased and kept aside to be showered as a symbol of blessing during the ceremony.

The pre-ordered packs were then delivered to the wedding venue by India Gate Basmati Rice, and the donated rice was handed over to Feeding India. Who turned the rice into meals and distributed them to the underprivileged.

A total of 4 pack designs were created, drawing inspiration from iconic symbols that encapsulate the culture and traditions of the different parts of India.

Each pack was filled with a nominal amount of rice and had a powerful message on the back that implored wedding guests to understand the implications of this custom. While also encouraging them to join the movement by blessing the newlywed couple in a unique way that allowed them to be a part of the ceremonial ritual, and help millions in need at the same time.

On indiadegaaashirvad.com, a special calculation determined how much rice couples or families had to donate in exchange for their desired number of packs.

The website allowed them to place their order, in the location of the wedding venue, and give a date for when the unused packs could be collected.

In just two weeks

- 144 wedding registrations in just two weeks

- 10,000 Pledges to not shower rice

- $2000000 worth of media was earned

- Over 1500 kgs. of rice collected

- 7500 meals were served to the underprivileged

- The nation came 1 step closer to becoming a hunger-free India