What if with every rakhi you tied, you were helping a homemaker, a farmer, and nature?
Well, that’s exactly the intention with which the Gram Art Project was started in Madhya Pradesh’s Paradsinga village by Shweta Bhattad. Over 300 women from 14 villages across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh assemble in groups to weave possibility into the threads.
As Shweta explains, the rakhi-making does not happen in silos. The thread of sustainability passes through the entire process of growing desi cotton, hand spinning, patterning the beautiful designs into rakhis, and ensuring that every rakhi tied equals a garden grown.
Describing the journey of the rakhi from the farm to your brother’s wrist, Shweta explains, “Desi cotton is cultivated by farmers in Vidarbha, in villages like Paradsinga, Wardha, and Akola.”
Reasoning its sustainability features, Shweta says it is much more eco-friendly compared to Bt cotton, whose genetic modification kills the bollworms that attack it.
“When I understood these things, I felt I wanted to encourage farmers to grow desi cotton, instead of the Bt cotton. But even when we did manage to convince a few farmers to do it, the question was what to do with it,” Shweta explains. Handmade rakhis held the answer.
The seed rakhis will add a sustainable touch to your Raksha Bandhan celebrations, Picture source: Gram Art Project
The cotton is handspun by women at Wardha’s Gram Seva Mandal using ambar charkhas (spinning wheels with seven spindles).
The threads are dyed naturally using turmeric, marigold, indigo, and floral waste collected from temples by the Dhimar community.
Once coloured, the yarn is sent to Paradsinga in Madhya Pradesh, and from there, it travels to 14 villages, where women continue the process of crafting each rakhi.
And then it makes its way to your home.
This Raksha Bandhan, choose sustainability.
Order your seed rakhi here.
Well, that’s exactly the intention with which the Gram Art Project was started in Madhya Pradesh’s Paradsinga village by Shweta Bhattad. Over 300 women from 14 villages across Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh assemble in groups to weave possibility into the threads.
As Shweta explains, the rakhi-making does not happen in silos. The thread of sustainability passes through the entire process of growing desi cotton, hand spinning, patterning the beautiful designs into rakhis, and ensuring that every rakhi tied equals a garden grown.
Describing the journey of the rakhi from the farm to your brother’s wrist, Shweta explains, “Desi cotton is cultivated by farmers in Vidarbha, in villages like Paradsinga, Wardha, and Akola.”
Reasoning its sustainability features, Shweta says it is much more eco-friendly compared to Bt cotton, whose genetic modification kills the bollworms that attack it.
“When I understood these things, I felt I wanted to encourage farmers to grow desi cotton, instead of the Bt cotton. But even when we did manage to convince a few farmers to do it, the question was what to do with it,” Shweta explains. Handmade rakhis held the answer.
The seed rakhis will add a sustainable touch to your Raksha Bandhan celebrations, Picture source: Gram Art Project
The cotton is handspun by women at Wardha’s Gram Seva Mandal using ambar charkhas (spinning wheels with seven spindles).
The threads are dyed naturally using turmeric, marigold, indigo, and floral waste collected from temples by the Dhimar community.
Once coloured, the yarn is sent to Paradsinga in Madhya Pradesh, and from there, it travels to 14 villages, where women continue the process of crafting each rakhi.
And then it makes its way to your home.
This Raksha Bandhan, choose sustainability.
Order your seed rakhi here.