JAMSHEDPUR: Tribal artists at Jamshedpur-based Kalamandir are making rakhis using traditional items for the upcoming Rakshabandhan festival on August 3.
Artists who are preparing rakhi at the Kalamandir said that they had started using the traditional patterns and materials on masks, etc during the COVID-19 induced lockdown.
“All of us are hurt by China`s actions. Customers who come here are willing to pay a little bit more for Indian products instead of Chinese,” a shopkeeper says.
“People are calling it Swadeshi rakhi, Jharkhandi rakhi, but I call them traditional rakhis. But it remains to be seen whether the shopkeepers will sell these over the Chinese ones. If we are able to provide a good product at cheap rates, the market will not look towards Chinese made rakhis,” Ghosh said.
“We are trying to use as less plastic as we can and especially during this lockdown phase we are using the local patterns to add a traditional twist to the rakhis. We are promoting this on social media platforms, and the response so far has been great. Till now, we have made over 12,000 rakhis,” an artist at the centre said.