Mathura

The women inmates living in the Brijgandha Prasar Samiti ashram for the destitute are busy preparing for the upcoming Holi festival. Some are making red and green-coloured gulal, others are making herbal gulal from flowers. 

The ashram is located in Vrindavan in Mathura district, Uttar Pradesh. It is a shelter for many destitute women, mostly widowed women living in their tiny, but cosy, homes. “As per their convenience, the mothers living here are taking time out to prepare herbal gulal from flowers. The flowers offered at the Banke Bihari Temple in Vrindavan are brought here. About 40-50 kgs of flowers arrive each day,” said Vikram Shivpuri, product coordinator of the Brijgandha Prasad Samiti.

He added: “At first, the old mothers from the ashram sort out the flowers after cleaning them and picking out threads and other unwanted bits. The flowers are then dried and pounded and kept. These flowers are also used to make incense sticks. The pounded powder is used to makes herbal gulal on Holi. This time, our target is to produce four-five quintals of gulal from these flowers.”

Ram Beti Thakur, who has been living in the ashram for five years, said: “We first sort the flowers and then dry them. Everyone does different work. After drying, we grind and sieve it. This gulal is not adulterated and is completely made of flowers. It feels very good to make it.”

The old mothers in the women’s shelter house of Chaitanya Vihar at Vrindavan get pension from the government but are also given wages, according to their work, for making incense sticks and gulal.

Anuragshyam Rastogi, the district probation officer (DPO), informed: “There are about 230 inmates living in the Chaitanya Vihar shelter house. Some volunteer to make gulal. They are paid based on the number of hours they put in.”

The DPO informed that this project was launched about a year back with the idea of providing additional means of livelihood to the old mothers.

“The work of making gulal and incense sticks from the flowers offered at the temples was started last year under which about one quintal gulal worth Rs 1 lakh was sold in the bazaar on Holi last year. So, this year, in view of the growing demand for herbal gulal made of flowers, about four-five quintal gulal is being prepared to meet the demands of the market,” said Rastogi.