Girl students weave rakhis of ‘gratitude’ for Jawans guarding J&K’s border areas

Jammu, Aug 28 (PTI) Rifat Ara, a school student in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, is among the scores of girls preparing handmade rakhis as “gratitude” for the soldiers guarding the country’s border in Jammu and Kashmir.

Barely two days to the Rakshabandhan festival, female students in several groups have weaved thousands of rakhis for Jawans and are trying to achieve a target of 10,000 so that they can tie them on the wrists of the policemen, army personnel, and personnel of the Border Security Force.

“Our hands are meticulously crafting these Rakhis, a tribute of gratitude for the brave souls defending our borders. This Rakshabandhan, our focus and affection is towards our valiant soldiers,” said Ara, a resident of a school in the Ponichak border belt of Jammu.

“On the day of the festival, we will venture to the border area and tie these Rakhis on the wrists of our protectors,” she added.

Avika Sharma of Rajouri, another student who is weaving rakhis with her friends, said that girls residing in several hostels in the region are weaving at least 1,000 rakhis each, which would collectively go up to 10,000.

“We have started this initiative to make the Jawans feel special as they are not able to celebrate this festival with their families and loved ones”, another student told PTI.

These young girls are looking forward to Raksha Bandhan to celebrate the day with soldiers deployed on the borders of the Jammu region. They will also tie rakhis around trees and plants, symbolising their commitment to safeguarding the environment that sustains life.

While most of the rakhis these days are usually made up of Chinese thread and other materials, these girls here are preparing the rakhis from Indian threads, beads collected from worn-out clothes, and other scrap items.

“Our focus from the beginning has been to avoid Chinese products. We do not use them at all. So we use threads made in India, besides the scrap items,” Hitika Devi, a school student from Billawar, said.