Hundreds of Vrindavan widows tie rakhi to pundits

Hundreds of widows and manual scavengers in Vrindavan tied rakhi on Wednesday to 50 upper caste pundits and Sanskrit scholars at the famous Gopinath temple in Vrindavan. Ten widows from Vrindavan will also visit Delhi on Thursday to tie rakhi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The initiative was taken by Sulabh International founder Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, who has been campaigning for social equality for four decades. Since the past fortnight, more than 100 widows, most of them octogenarians, have been engaged in making colourful rakhis for the festival.

According to a statement by Sulabh International, the celebration of Raksha Bandhan is a continuation of the NGO’s attempts to bring the widows back into the social mainstream.

The NGO earlier helped the widows of Varanasi and Vrindavan celebrate festivals like Holi, Diwlai and Durga Puja. Dr Pathak also takes care of around 1,000 widows in Vrindavan.