South Asian Heritage Month 2022

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Author: Sukhveer Kaur, Customer Advisor

What is South Asian Heritage Month (SAHM)?

SAHM is the celebration of the South Asian Heritage countries Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. It has become an opportunity to educate people about South Asian Heritage; running from the 18th July till the 17th August.

Even if you are not from South Asia, you can appreciate and celebrate with your family and friends that are! You can learn more about this event through arts, culture and commemoration. It’s a perfect way to help people understand and appreciate the multicultural Britain that we live in today.

This celebration also reflects the 75th year of Indian independence, and the creation of Pakistan (widely now known as East and West Pakistan).

How does Sky come into this?

Sky Sports announced a partnership with Sporting Equals to help support the charity's ambition to inspire young British South Asian people to believe in equal opportunities within football. The collaboration is aimed to help improve underrepresentation by breaking the barriers that affect both the participation and progression of British South Asian footballing talent. This work features especially in women's football. With Sky News being Europe's largest broadcaster, the work they are doing brings us a step closer to making sure all our audiences feel represented.

Internally, Sky as a company is proud to be diverse and inclusive.

Alt Text: a Venn diagram that shows how three internal Sky Groups work together.

Women @ Sky campaigned against underrepresention in sports, which led to Sky Sports highlighting the issue and striving to make positive changes.

Diversity & Inclusion @ Sky helped launch the scheme Kick It Out with the Football Premier League, consistently shown on Sky Sports and TV.

Multiculture @ Sky seeks to educate both customers and employees about the different cultures that we represent at Sky. We most recently celebrated Eid, which was promoted all over our Multiculture Newsletter.

On our platforms we have made great strides...

When Sky Glass was first released we didn't have access to amazing Asian Channels like Star Utsav Bharat and Zee Cinema. Our teams have been working hard to make sure we are able to make Sky Glass inclusive and fun for every culture. Now, there are currently 13 Asian channels available, with 8 more waiting in the wings!

With the updated channel list, provided by our very own John McKenzie, we have so much more access and so much more to talk about with our customers! Sky Q currently has 19 Asian channels easily accessible. 

Want to get involved?

• South Asian Heritage month has many upcoming events. SAHM Founders Event on Friday 22nd July, 12pm - 1 pm. Speaking are the co-founders of SAHM, Binita Kane and Jasvir Singh

• Driving Continued Success in the Arts, Monday 8th August, 2.30pm - 3.30pm. Hosted on Osterley's North West Corner,  we will be joined by Sanjeev Bhaskar and Nina Wadia, discussing the theme of celebration and ways of how we can pay it forward.

• The South Asian Heritage Society is celebrating by hosting 31 events for the 31 days that SAHM runs for.

Follow @SkyHelpTeam for more!