BHOPAL: On the festival of Raksha Bandhan on Friday, thousands of brothers across Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra will not only wear the sacred bond tied on the wrists by their sisters but also help in planting a lemon sapling in the coming days.
Girls and women from 120 Korku, Bheel and Bhilala tribe families in Golaimaal forest village under tribal-dominated Khalwa block of MP’s Khandwa district embarked since June 2021 on Mission Vriksha Bandhan, fashioning environment-friendly Rakhis out of bamboo, corn kernels and lemon seeds.
Not only have these girls-women fashioned the eco-friendly Rakhis under the brand Vriksha Bandhan, but also created small bamboo boxes containing one lemon seeds Rakhi or other eco-friendly Rakhi along with two Mahua laddoos and mini packets of Haldi-Kumkum.
“The work on these Rakhis with the aim of bidding adieu to chemical colour based Rakhis and also promoting environment conservation was started by the girls and women from 120 traditional bamboo handicraft artisan families in Golayimaal village from June 22.
"Within a month and a half only, we’ve supplied 5000 Rakhis to Nagpur (Maharashtra), besides 3000-plus Rakhis in local markets of Khandwa district and also thousands of Rakhis to customers in Bhopal and Indore. Each of the girls and women fashioning these Rakhis has earned sums ranging between Rs 4000-Rs 6000 in the last two months,” said Mohan Rokade, the coordinator of Manmohan Kala Sanskriti Kendra, which is behind the unique initiative.
These Rakhis bear an appeal to the brothers who will ultimately tie them on wrists, not to dump these Rakhis after use, but instead put it properly in the soil to facilitate the plantation of a lemon sapling in days to come – which in coming months would render natural sources of Vitamin C to people to fight out killer ailments like COVID-19, Rokade added.
According to Nandini Waskale and Sarita Solanki, two of the tribal girls engaged in this creative endeavour, “our families have been associated with bamboo art for generations, but the new initiative has broad-based our creativity with the help of a professional designer from Nagpur. This has rendered not only income to us, but also helped us in rendering a token effort to conserve the environment.”
The initiative is run by the Manmohan Kala Sanskriti Kendra as part of a dedicated scheme of union micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) ministry is helping the 120 tribal families of the Golayimaal village in not only preserving their bamboo handicrafts art but also generate income through it.
“These families are also creating all kinds of bamboo-based showpieces, furniture as well as bamboo-based jewellery, including earrings and necklaces. All the associated families are monthly deriving income ranging between Rs 6000 to Rs 10,000, which has rendered them lucrative self-employement at their house only and consequently stopped their migration to adjoining Maharashtra and Gujarat,” Mohan Rokade said.