Nearly a week ago when Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the 'Fit India Movement', the joy of members of Srinivas Ganesh Utsav Mandal in Mulund held no bounds. The housing society mandal, which brings eco-friendly Ganpati every year, had decided to have one with a theme of fitness.

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"When Hima Das won gold for India, that is when we decided that we will have a theme related to fitness. We had decided that we will do something around sports and highlights those sports whose sportsmen are not acknowledged as much. We make cricketers superstars but nothing is said about people who play other sports," said Dipesh Yadav, member of the Mandal.

Yadav has taken upon himself to make the eco-friendly Ganpati since then. The society has been getting Ganpati an eco-friendly Ganpati for over 30 years now. In the last few years it has made eco-friendly Ganpatis to promote Beti Padhao Beti Bachao and items that are free of GST among others.

The mandal made a conscious decision of making the Ganpati idol with sports equipment of sports that are not as popular as cricket. The idol has been made of punching bag, boxing gloves, exercising ball, battle rope, swimming floats, yoga mats, skipping ropes, and scuba equipment among others.

"Our final outcome has come out much better. When the PM also emphasized on fitness and health, we felt very happy and kept a tagline of 'Fit India-Hit India' to propagate the message of fitness," said Yadav.

The mandal will be keeping a spare skipping rope around and also be encouraging devotees to do skipping. "We have a small space for that. As of now there are heavy rains so it is a dampener but we will be having a 30-second challenge on who can skip most number of times," said Kalpesh Lodaya, another member of the mandal. "Each of these items is dismantled on the last day of Ganpati and distributed among the underprivileged," said Kalpesh Lodaya, member of the mandal.