Updated on: Thursday, July 29, 2010
In a bid to encourage interest in history among children, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) and Fox History and Entertainment have launched an essay competition on the historical and cultural traditions of their city for schoolchildren.
The infotainment channel began this initiative as part of the second season of its programme "My City, My History".
"'My city My History', in its first year, received overwhelming response from children, parents and teachers. The initiative inspired young minds to showcase the heritage of their respective cities and become more responsible towards the historical treasures of our country," said Keertan Adyanthaya, managing director of Fox International Channels and National Geographic Channel Networks India.
The competition will require children to find a fascinating story about a historic location, art or craft of their city, and submit a 750-word article on the subject. Five winners will get to appear in short films based on their stories that will be aired on Fox History and Entertainment Channel.
To promote the initiative, the channel is organising heritage walks for children across the 28 states of India.
Encouraging students to take part in the project, India's first woman police officer Kiran Bedi said: "I wish to go back to school to learn and access these kind of lovely opportunities. As a child we didn't have such opportunities."