HYDERABAD: Over the years, more and more Hyderabadis have started spending and spending like there is no tomorrow. Be it any exhibition in the city and you will find women in groups of twos or threes totting their stylish bags browsing the merchandise on offer at the stalls.
When you say exhibitions, there are many that come to mind, D’sire, Petals, Silk Expo, Shrujan, Fashion Yatra, Akriti and Khwaaish to name a few. While exhibitions are dime a dozen, Khwaaish is one of the few which turns it focus towards social causes and initiatives for the betterment of society.
The exhibition which is held once every three months will hand out paper bags to shoppers instead of the usual plastic bags to carry their shopping haul. While giving paper bags to shoppers is nothing new, this time around the organisers got the juvenile inmates of Chanchalguda jail to make them. “The aim of Khwaaish is to bring attention towards issues that otherwise are not highlighted much. Through such initiatives, we hope to bring some change for those in need,” says organiser Savita Bansal who goes on to add, “We had visited Chanchalguda jail a while back and met the inmates there. While there, some of them came up to us and said that they would like to help out in some way for the exhibition. Although we wanted them to see the exhibition, the superintendent didn’t agree. So we decided to give them sheets of newspapers we collected and string so that they could contribute this way.” The organisers will be paying the jail authorities for the bags and the children will get the money when they get released from jail.
“The main problem of the juvenile inmates of jail is lack of work, the empty mind and lack of activities force children to get involved in bad activities. Engaging them in such activities will help them get involved in work and educate, empower them; as well as conserve the environment through decreased use of plastic,” points out Savita.
In addition to this, the Khwaaish team in collaboration with Janhit foundation has also adopted on two villages in Medak district after identifying the areas that needed improvement.
“We observed that many children in the two villages help their families during the day so we appointed a teacher to run an evening school there and ran hygiene campaigns at the village,” adds Savita.