On Saturday, November 19, for the first time ever, the Global Citizen Festival hit India, and this year it promoted more than 200 million social movements in Mumbai, towards benefitting social goals for sustainable goods.
More than 70,000 people were in attendance and the festival’s lineup included artists Coldplay, Jay Z, Demi Lovato, and India’s own A.R. Rahman.
Actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Alia Bhatt, Katrina Kaif, Varun Dhawan, Ranveer Singh also hit the stage to perform, among many others.
Hosts for the festival included Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan., Ritesh Deshmukh, Parineeti Chopra, Ayushmann Khurana, Malaika Arora Khan, and Arjun Kapoor.
Global leaders at the event promised to generate dozens of commitments to improve the lives of more than 500 million people through sustainable development, and ending extreme poverty.
The festival also continued its campaign to hold world leaders accountable for “their commitments and honor promises” made at the festival stage.
According to Indian policymakers, the plan will affect more than 500 million people, and is an investment that will cost INR 40,500 crore ($5.93 billion).
Two months since the launch of the Global Citizen India movement, more than 5 million youth in India took more than 20 million initiatives, asking political, faith, and business leaders, including celebrities to be more accountable to the status they held in society. They urged them to improve their efforts toward education, gender equality, water quality, sanitation and hygiene in India.
Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, made a commitment to build homes, provide special nutrition programs, and build toilets, which will cost an an estimated
INR 17,142 crore ($2,501,694,909) and improve the lives of 194 lakh (19.4 million) people in Maharashtra.
“I am delighted to commit to investments in Maharashtra that will make us: an Open Defecation Free state by March 2018 by building toilets; a state that lifts children out of extreme hunger through special nutrition programs; and a state which provides for the homeless through investments in building homes. Shuruaat hoon main!” Fadnavis said.
Another promise made was by Chairman of the Tata Group, investor and philanthropist, Ratan Tata, who committed to an INR 300 crore ($43,781,850.00) investment from his Tata Trust over the next two years towards developing water and sanitation programs.
Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, addressed the Global Citizens festival through video and congratulated everyone for their efforts towards building a better future—for their energy and idealism.
To learn more about the festival and to see a full list of commitments made visit: www.globalcitizen.in/impact.
