A signature drive was started in Orissa with a kick off by international football player and former captain of Indian women football team, Sradhanjali Samantaray. It would continue till June 22, Santosh K. Padhy of international NGO ActionAid. Additionally, it was reported that a signed appeal by participants was directed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik asking them to increase budgetary allocations for elementary education, he said. Around 100 organisations in the state have already joined the drive.
The drive is part of the 1Goal campaign launched globally coinciding with the FIFA Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa. The campaign is backed by FIFA and some of the biggest names in football. The objective of the campaign is to pressurise the governments globally to provide with additional money for enabling each child to attend school. 1Goal is setting out to be the biggest campaign around a sporting event. It already has 100 ambassadors, 25 of the biggest mobile phone companies backing it and aims to get 72 million people signing up.
