Bhubaneswar: Social organisations and youth groups from across the state have come together to spread the joy of giving for this year's Daan Utsav.

A series of activities have been lined up as part of the initiative that will be celebrated from December 2 to 8.

Daan Utsav is the country's "festival of giving" launched in 2009, and this is the 10th year of the event where people are engaged in giving money, time, resources or skills to others. In this festival, many people like auto-rickshaw drivers to CEOs, schoolchildren to celebrities, home-makers to opinion leaders, and people from all walks of life join for the cause.

Bakul Foundation has been celebrating the first day of Daan Utsav as a national day of service - in which volunteers visited various orphanages, old age homes and slums and spread smiles, joy and learning. "Youngsters from various colleges across the state will organise a series of activities at various places across the state as a part of the initiative," said Sujit Mahapatra from Bakul Foundation.

People of Puri, Badamba, Daspalla, Badabarsing, Bari and so on will also be part of the festival, celebrating and impacting a lot in social and economic changes. Odia rapper, Samir Rishu Mohanty, along with Manas Sahu, the sand artist from Puri, will be a part of the event. "The Utkal University students will conduct collection drives at their colleges, where food items such as cereals, pulses, spices, noodles, biscuits and chocolates from various departments and faculty members will be distributed among various special schools in the city," said varsity student Subrat Behera.

A number of youth groups will host various workshops and skill improvement sessions for the poor children to showcase their talents.

There are also plans to take up beach clean-up initiatives, blood donation camps and plantation drives among others. This year, Alia Bhatt, Lata Mangeshkar, Azim Premji, Mary Kom, Anu Aga, Chhavi Rajawat, Devi Shetty, Justice Srikrishna joined with Sachin Tendulkar as ambassadors to promote the festival to a greater heights.