Made with seeds, these rakhis give moral boost to specially-abled teens

Siliguri: With an aim to make the Raksha Bandhan festival a memorable one, teenagers with special needs are making rakhis themselves using a variety of natural ingredients like paddy, rice, pumpkin seeds, peas and different types of seeds.

The rakhis made by these specially-abled teenagers of Fakdaibari area near

Siliguri have been flying off the shelves. Deepali Roy, a resident of Fakdaibari and a member of a social organisation, took the initiative to teach these teenagers the process of making rakhis. Deepali’s son is also a specially-abled child.

She has been training these children with the aim of giving them a moral boost. “These rakhis are made of various natural ingredients, including rice, pumpkin seeds and peas.

They are very attractive to look at. No plastic is being used in the making of these rakhis. We have sold the rakhis not only in Siliguri but also delivered them to Rajasthan and Kolkata,” said Deepali. A social organisation from Siliguri helped Deepali with the work. Not only rakhis, these teenagers are also being given training in sewing and making handcrafts throughout the year.

About 10 teenagers are making these rakhis and as many as 700 rakhis have been sold till Tuesday and the process to make more is still on.

Sakti Paul, the founder of the organisation, said: “Our aim is that these teenagers and children can be self-reliant.” The price range of the rakhis starts from Rs 20 and goes upto Rs 50.