HYDERABAD: With Raksha Bandhan just around the corner, Rakhi stalls have come up in every street of the city, displaying a variety of handmade and machine- made rakhis. While most of these stalls display rakhis imported from Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi, they also sell locally manufactured rakhis.
There are only a few manufacturing units in Hyderabad. Most of them are in Purana Pul and Dhoolpet areas, where hundreds of women are employed. B Shiva Kumar, who has been running a rakhi manufacturing unit in Dhoolpet for over fifty years, said, “Nearly three hundred women work with us. They collect the raw material from here and make thousands of types of rakhis at their homes. It is a year-long process.
Our rakhis are sold in other parts of the region like Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, and Kurnool. Along with rakhis, we also make kites and Ganesh idols.” Habiba, one of the women workers, said, “We begin in Ramzan and work at a full pace for the next three months. I make around a dozen rakhis each day. The cost of each rakhi varies from Rs 7 to Rs 150.”
K Ravinder, a stallholder in Chandanagar, said, “I have been putting up a stall for the past 25 years in this area. Every year I try to bring a unique collection of rakhis. We also get cartoonthemed rakhis for children.”