Varanasi widows to send 1000 rakhis to 'brother Modi'

Prime minister Narendra Modi will receive a “unique” gift from Varanasi, his Lok Sabha constituency, this Rakhi day. 

In a heartening gesture, the widows of Varanasi, who are spending the twilight of their lives at different ashrams in the holy town, will be sending one thousand “rakhis” (wrist bands) and sweets to Modi, who they describe as their “new brother”.

About 12 widows, mostly in their 80s, were currently engaged in making colourful “rakhis” at their ashrams. They were being assisted by a group of elderly widows from Nepal, who also live in the ashrams.

“The work of preparing the rakhis for Modi began in the last week and so far, they have prepared about 500 of them in Meera Sahabhagi and Chetan Vihar ashrams,” said an old widow. “We have planned a target of sending around 1,000 rakhis to our prime minister,” she added. 

However, they do not have much time to complete the task as the festival is barely a few days away. As many as 100 widows on Sunday gathered at the Durgakund ashram and resolved to prepare the rakhis in time and send them to Modi in the next couple of days.

Sulabh International, a voluntary organisation actively engaged in the field of low-cost sanitation, which has adopted as many as 1,500 widows in Varanasi, Vrindavan and Kedarnath Valley, organises such programmes for the widows at regular intervals.

“Such an initiative will bring cheers to their lives. We plan to organise many such programmes for them in the near future, said Sulabh founder director Bindeshwar Pathak.

“The objective is to change thoughts, behaviour and attitude of the people of this country towards widows of India, who are their mothers, sisters, aunties and so on and so forth,” he remarked.