“Our country is celebrating its 75th year. It’s a historic moment. We are so happy and proud to be part of this major work,” gushes Divya Vijayaraj, Tailoring Consortium Treasurer of Kudumbashree in Ernakulam. She is speaking on behalf of the hundreds of Kudumbashree women who were engaged in stitching the Tricolor for the Har Ghar Tiranga event to mark the 75th year of Indian Independence and the related Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
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The mammoth task of tailoring 2 lakh flags in 12 days for Ernakulam district came to a close on August 8. The work was distributed among 55 units, each with four to five women. Besides the direct involvement of these women, there were as many as 1,000 who were stitching the Tricolour at their homes.
Shyamala Bose, leading the Palluruthy Unit at Sowparnika Cloth Bag Unit and assisted by Renny Benny and Uma Devi Rajesh, said it has been hectic but extremely satisfying.
Since August 1, the women have been working from 7 a.m. till 11 p.m., cutting almost 5,000 flags from printed bales of blended fabric and polyester that arrived from Gujarat. There were five cutting units in Ernakulam, at Palluruthy, Paravur, Kothamangalam, Perambavoor and at Kalamassery in the city.
The total number of flags stitched at Palluruthy were 4,000. The other units in West Kochi, Kumbalangi, Kattiparambil and Pallipuram supplied 3,500 flags. “We have been extremely busy, we cut the material and almost 20 women arrive to take the cut cloth and stitch them into flags. Cords are fitted at there points. They return in the evening with finished flags,” says Renny. Many women from the neighbourhood of the units and friends of the Kudumbashree women joined in the activity, imparting the challenging task a festival feel. The flags will be sold through Community Development Society (CDS) of Kudumbashree for orders that come to the 80 panchayats and the 14 municipalities in the district. The flags are priced at ₹28.