The Centre is set to launch a large-scale campaign to encourage Indians to fly the national flag at their homes to mark the 75th Independence Day and has reached out to manufacturers and e-commerce sites to boost the availability of the Tricolour, according to officials aware of the programme.
As a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Culture Ministry is planning on celebrating August 11 to August 17 as “Independence Week” across the country, Culture Secretary Govind Mohan said. During the week, the 26 crore households in the country would be encouraged to hoist the Tricolour as a part of the ‘Har Ghar Tiranga’ programme. Mr. Mohan said the Ministry had been in touch with textile manufacturers to make sure the production of the national flag was adequate. He added that meetings with e-tailers like Amazon and Flipkart were being held, to make sure these sites would be a platform to buy flags.
The Ministry was in talks with States and Union Territories to coordinate the programme as well, with some States like Maharashtra already coming out with their plans, he said. The Government-e-Marketplace (GeM) portal, through which Government Departments and Ministries procure products, had also written to Ministries that they could place orders for flags for their offices through the portal.
On the demand side of the plan, Mr. Mohan said an awareness campaign to inspire individuals to hoist the national flag would be launched in July. The campaign would be rolled out in mid-July in railway stations, airports and Metro stations as well as at the panchayat-level in rural areas. A song by renowned musicians had also been commissioned.
In order to facilitate the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign, the Union Home Ministry had last year amended the Flag Code, which earlier only allowed hand-woven or hand-spun flags to be made, to allow flags to be polyester and machine-made. According to two sources, the aim of the Har Ghar Tiranga campaign was to inspire people, rather than carry out a distribution drive.
Apart from encouraging households, the campaign would cover government offices, civil society groups and the corporate sector. In a letter to Ministries, the Culture Ministry had on May 20 said “the idea behind this initiative is to invoke the feeling patriotism in the hearts of citizens and promote awareness about our national flag”.
On May 13, the Cabinet Secretary chaired a meeting of a Committee of Secretaries where it was decided that employees of Ministries, Public Sector Undertakings, self-help groups and civil society organisations and their families would have “active participation” in Har Ghar Tiranga. The May 20 letter had said that corporate and private organisations “may also be encouraged, wherever possible, to participate and contribute including CSR [corporate social responsibility] resources”.
