In order to motivate people to stay indoors during the 21-days nationwide lockdown, a premier mountaineering institute in Darjeeling has come up with an innovative contest where participants can win a free vacation to the hills, by staying at home during the three-week period.

The Darjeeling-based Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (HMI), one the oldest and premier mountaineering institutes of the country has come up with a challenge on its Facebook page, HMI, 21 Days Big Boss Indoor Challenge - Fight Against COVID-19.

The aim of this 21-day challenge is to support the three-week lockdown in the public interest and also to motivate the countrymen to stay at home safely. The challenge consists of total indoor innovative challenges ...with this challenge we are trying to reach out to the masses and motivate them to remain indoors and get involved in various indoor activities, HMI institute said on its Facebook page.

The challenge has been divided into two categories one is for the HMI course participants and another for open category.

As per the open category, the challenges include uploading photos and videos on the HMI Facebook page with a short description on the same and provide his/ her contact details.

For the course participants, the challenge is divided into various categories from best home cleaning warriors to the best indoor athlete to the best storyteller to best poetry.

For the open category, the prize will include 5 nights to 3 nights stay in Darjeeling. The third prize is a tracksuit and mementoes for the top 10 participants, it said.

The HMI initiative was welcomed by Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) chairman Binay Tamang who felt such challenges will motivate more people to stay indoors.

The HMI was founded by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1954. Tenzing Norgay, who along with Edmund Hilary was the first human to set foot on Mount Everest, was appointed as its first director.