After tending to her three children, Neema Rawat wove pine leaves into colorful eco-friendly rakhis. Neema, 30, lives in Maniguh village in Uttarakhand’s Rudraprayag district. She made 65 rakhis for Rakshabandhan.
Like Neema, four other women began making these rakhis a fortnight ago. These women were trained by Manju R. Shah under an initiative of the Ghar Gaon Foundation, working towards education and women empowerment in Maniguh.
Maniguh is located around 34 kilometres away from the district headquarters and 15 kilometres off the busy market of Agastyamuni.
“After the demand of these Rakhis out-traveled the State’s boundaries, we explored the Agastyamuni local market to sell these ‘pirul’ rakhis, Suman Mishra, Co-Founder of Ghar Gaon Foundation told Organiser.
Manju R Shah who trained these women is popular by the name of ‘pirul woman’. In 2020, Shah trained over 150 women in bordering district Chamoli’s Gopeshwar in association with the Kedarnath Forest Division. So, we invited her to train the women in Maniguh and help them earn a livelihood, Mishra explained.
This year in June, Shah traveled to Maniguh from her village Ranikhet in district Bageshwar, and conducted a three-day workshop. “I attended the workshop for two-days during evening hours. But, initially, we were shy and were not sure if we could learn the craft and do something of our own. But, after our rakhis were appreciated, we are now confident that this can help us support our families”, said Neema Rawat.
During the nationwide lockdown in 2020, Geeta Pant of Manila in Sult block of Kumaon’s Almora district, learnt the craft of making products from pirul from Shah. “In 2020, I made 200 rakhis. The demand was encouraging, and the pirul rakhis were shipped to the US. Next year, 300 rakhis were made, this year I made 400 rakhis”, Pant told.
“The rakhis are nicely created”, says Bangalore-based Swapnil Soni, who bought the pirul rakhis made by the women of Maniguh.
An initiative that began as an experiment this season, we intend to scale up the next season. But, we are happy that in limited time our women could sell rakhis for twelve thousand rupees”, said Mishra.
Tharu women foray into Moonj Rakhi business
Bindeshwari Devi, 32 lives in Tharu Budiya in Khatima block of Udham Singh Nagar district. She has made over 100 rakhis using moonj grass (Saacharum bengalense/munja).
The moonj grass is used traditionally by people living along the river banks, to make household items like bread (roti) basket, daliya (pooja basket), and supa (winnower). In Uttar Pradesh, the craft is a key source of livelihood for the people in Allahabad (now Prayagraj).
But, with support and aid from the Uttarakhand government, the women were trained.
Over the years, the Tharu women have been able to develop 200 products. They were trained to weave new designs by Delhi-based designers.
Shiksha Rana, Convener of the cluster which engages around 1,200 Tharu women, for the first time this year began making Rakhis. And we are thrilled with the response so far. From the cluster 10 women are currently engaged in making moonj rakhis. We have been able to make 1,000 rakhis, which are being marketed directly. Some of our Rakhis have been bought by officers, and we feel proud that our rakhis will reach the army personnel serving our Nation.
