At Khetikhan, a quiet village in Uttarakhand, women from artisan NGO Himalayan Blooms braid threads to make rakhis. With every overlap of the skein, they metaphorically bind tighter the bonds of sibling love. Across the geographical superlatives of the Kumaon Himalayas that surround the village are men of the Indian Army who guard these frontiers, and who may this Rakshabandhan (August 3) wear some of these rakhis.
The NGO is part of a network of 10 others from across India — three in Kutch, two in Tamil Nadu, one more in Uttarakhand, one each in Jharkhand and Bengaluru, and a collective that straddles Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh — that are part of Habba, an initiative of Bengaluru-based Rang De, started with the objective of bridging the empathy gap between customers and artisans with a belief in ‘honest pricing’. Founded in 2015 and now funded by Social Alpha, an initiative of Tata Trusts, Habba has won Facebook’s India Innovation Challenge Award, among others, and its online platform has over 2,000 retail customers.
‘Acknowledging bonds’
Ramakrishna NK, 45, co-founder of Rang De, says over phone from Bengaluru, “This is our first connect with the Army. We conceived this initiative three weeks ago when one of the Uttarakhand NGOs reached out asking us to help them sell 10,000 rakhis. We wanted to express our gratitude to the soldiers and also help these artisans who have been struggling because of the pandemic. The tradition of rakshabandhan involves acknowledging bonds with one or two brothers. Here, citizens are invited to buy any number of rakhis at ₹100 a piece and honour our brothers in arms. We now have 1,00,000 rakhis, the sale of which will benefit 1,000 artisans. Each of the 10 NGOs has contributed varying numbers. Each artisan will receive ₹50 a piece and the remaining will go towards shipping, design, material and training.”
With the timeline being short, the rakhis are on sale online before those sold are despatched to four Army bases across the country. “The campaign ends this weekend,” says Ramakrishna, “as we need time to sanitise and ship the rakhis. Buyers can also send a note of gratitude, but will not be able to choose the rakhi, although they will receive an email saying it has reached a soldier.”
The rakhis are a reflection of the diversity of Indian handloom and hand-craft. Made with locally sourced material, they showcase the rich colours of Kutch, the simplicity of Himalayan flowers and the complex geometry of tribal embroidery.
In Kil Paachar Thanda village, 30 kilometres from Tiruvannamalai in Tamil Nadu, a young couple spearheads Buriya, an NGO that works with Lambadi women. Named for the nose-ring worn by these women, Buriya’s focus is the embroidery tradition of the tribe. Babu Naik, who holds a Master’s in Computer Science and his wife, Priyanka, set up the NGO in 2018. “We work with Lambadi women from two villages. We are making 2,000 rakhis. They take approximately 30 minutes to make one. We stick to the colours that mirror our heritage — red, yellow, cream, green and light blue. The samples are distributed to the women who create these at home. The colours are their choice,” says Naik.
The campaign page has messages such as “A thread that carries the prayers of all Indians from my side...” and also the numbers that show a lot more has to be sold to help these artisans kickstart their livelihood and honour the soldier this Rakshabandhan.
For details, https://habba.org/rakhi, call 080-41650037 or mail support@habba.org
