National Unity Day 2022 | 31st October | Rashtriya Ekta Diwas

Rashtriya Ekta Diwas

October 31st is celebrated as National Unity Day or Rashtriya Ekta Diwas. It commemorates the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, also known as the Iron Man of India. He was a great freedom fighter and played a pivotal role in the independence struggle.

He has contributed immensely towards the freedom movement and for the integration of the nation. He believed in unity and urged people to look beyond religion, caste, and language. He joined the Indian Independence struggle In 1917. Sardar Vallabhai Patel was a successful lawyer and a great visionary. He worked towards abolishing untouchability and caste discrimination.

Sardar Vallabh Patel was behind unifying the 565 princely states to independent India. This is what earned him the title “The Iron Man of India.”

Since 2014, National Unity Day has been celebrated on October 31st. As mentioned, he played a crucial role in unifying India and his vision was to integrate the whole nation. In order to acknowledge his vision and pay tribute to his achievements and hard work, the committee that was formed in 2014, decided to commemorate National Unity Day on October 31st.

In October 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the 'Statue of Unity', sculpted in Patel's honour in Gujarat, on the occasion of his 143rd birth anniversary.

Celebration of this occasion annually helps youth of the country to be aware of and provides an opportunity to everyone to maintain the integral strength of the nation. It makes Indian citizens to realize that how a national integrity helps in defeating the actual and potential threats for unity, integrity and security of the nation.

How National Unity Day is Celebrated

National Unity Day is an initiative celebrated every year to commemorate Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s birth anniversary. It is celebrated by the people of India by organizing variety of events. A floral tribute is given to the statue of Sardar Patel every year at the Patel Chowk, Parliament Street, New Delhi in the morning. Various programmes are organized by the government of India to mark the occasion such as run for unity, pledge taking ceremony march past by the Indian police. Run for Unity programme is held in the major cities, district towns and various places in the rural areas. Youths from the schools, colleges, universities, educational institutes, National Cadet Corps, National Service Scheme, etc take part in the programme very actively. It is organized at huge level in the National capital from Vijay Chowk to India Gate on the Rajpath at 8.30 am in the morning.

The second programme, which is organised most importantly in the government offices, public sectors, public institutions, etc, is pledge taking ceremony. It is organised to observe the occasion by truly taking the pledge in a group.

 Third event organised on this day is a march past by the police (central armed police forces including scouts, guides, NCC, NSS, home guards, etc) on the streets of major cities and district towns. Somewhere, a pledge taking ceremony is held after the march past of police.

Employees and staffs from the municipal corporation of many cities also take part in the National Unity pledge and later in the Run for Unity. Students from various schools and colleges also perform variety of cultural activities including banners and posters making in order to spread the message of unity and security, essay writing, speech reciting, quiz competition, paintings, rhyme recitation, art making competition, debate on the related topic, etc. The main objective of organizing variety of programmes at this day is to promote national integration among citizens of the India as well as maintain the unity and integrity of the country.

It has been requested by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to administer pledge taking in the schools and colleges so that students can be motivated and maintain the unity and integrity of the country in future. Thus, a notice has been issued by the Central Board of Secondary Education to administer the pledge in the schools.

Almost 250 centre coordinators has been appointed by the CBSE in schools all across India in order to organize the event in which more than 400-500 students come from the neighborhood schools at each centre to participate in the mass activities. Variety of activities play great role in conveying the message about importance of unity in maintaining peace, keeping public places clean, security, removing threats, etc in the country.

5 things to learn from Sardar Vallabhai Patel

1.Self-care:

He understood the importance of taking care of one’s self and that the self has to be nurtured for an individual to be productive and resourceful.

2.Integrity

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel brought all the princely states together after independence and set the foundation for a strong and united nation. Integrity is a beautiful quality to possess

3.Equality and unity

He did not believe in social constructs such as religion, caste, creed, and likewise. He urged people to look beyond that and be unified. He was a true leader!

4.Freedom

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel worked tirelessly for the freedom of our country. He once stated that we have to work furiously for our freedom. It is not something that will be granted to you without any effort.

5.Women Empowerment:

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel treated everyone equally. He worked for the empowerment of women. He underlined the importance of educating women and bringing them to the forefront of things.

India is a land of diversities and we have to look beyond the differences to be able to grow and develop. On this National Unity Day, let’s take a bow and honour the man who urged people to look beyond their differences.