Distinction for Dotivala

Godrej N. Dotivala, public relations officer of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP), was recently elected chairman of the Junior Red Cross and Youth Red Cross, as per a write-up sent by him to Parsiana. The Junior Red Cross, like its parent body the International Red Cross, came into being to overcome the human devastation wrought by conflict when, in 1914 in the Canadian province of Quebec, children participated for the first time in Red Cross work by making bandages, dressings and other comforts for soldiers wounded in World War I. The Junior Red Cross arrived in India in 1925 and was established in Maharashtra a year later, as mentioned in a brochure of a musical extravaganza organized by the humane society on March 7, 2009 in Bombay.

Godrej Dotivala: value service

The brochure lists the five-fold aims and objects of the Junior Red Cross as: to inculcate in children the basic concept of health and hygiene; to imbue in youngsters the value of social service to the community; to bring about an intermingling of young people of different castes, creeds, religions, age and gender; to encourage national integration and to create an atmosphere of international understanding through pen friends in various countries, participating in international exhibitions, sending representatives to international camps and seminars. During the period June 2008 and February 2009 the Bombay Junior Red Cross, in addition to its annual training-cum-social service camp, organized a number of activities including a greeting card competition, a poster competition, a Hindustani classical singing contest, clay painting and creative writing competition, the annual cultural competition, a monsoon picnic and a Christmas party, the brochure states.

Dotivala is editor of the BPP Review, the bulletin of the BPP which covers a gamut of topics of interest to Parsis around the globe, which he claims "has the largest circulation amongst all the Parsi magazines and periodicals worldwide.” Dotivala is credited with using his good offices with the then chief minister of Maharashtra to reinstate Parsi New Year as a public holiday in the state. In June 2002 he brought out, under the auspices of the Federation of Parsi Zoroastrian Anjumans of India, the first All India Directory of Zoroastrian Punchayets, Anjumans, Associations and Local Bodies, which he says has proved to be a very popular publication.

The trustees deputed Dotivala to represent the BPP at the celebration of the 3,000th anniversary of the Zoroastrian religion and culture and the golden jubilee of the Parsi Zoroastrian Association of South East Asia at Singapore in 2004. Dotivala played a pivotal role in the naming of the junction of Homi Mody Street and Tamarind Lane as Padma Vibhushan Nani Ardeshir Palkhivala Chowk and was responsible for doing the spadework with the Bombay Mint for bringing out a special five-rupee commemorative coin in honor of Dr Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Parsi to figure on the Government of India’s currency, the write-up reveals.

Among the other offices Dotivala holds are those of district chairman of Rotary International District 3140, president of the Indo-Australian Society and secretary of the Indo-Iranian Friendship Society. He is also trustee of the Bai Avabai Wadia Agiary and has for over two decades been honorary secretary of the Mayor’s Fund, Bombay, the premier civic fund in India, his bio data reveals.