Mumbai: Transgender people and women create 75,000 flags for BMC in 10 days

Women fold the stitched flags to be delivered to VVCMC

A group of transgender people and women from low income backgrounds, on Saturday achieved the feat of stitching and delivering 75,000 Indian national flags in just 10 days. The group associated with a Mumbai based NGO, Indian Development Foundation (IDF), participated in the central government initiative, "Har Ghar Tiranga" and made the delivery to Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC). Training for the group of 500 people was undertaken under the NGO's ‘Sui Dhaga' project.

mid-day had earlier highlighted about IDF's initiative to teach tailoring to slum-based women free of cost to make them self-reliant. CEO and national Coordinator (IDF), Dr Narayan AB Iyer, said "VVCMC provided us with the required materials for stitching the flags as per the approved size of three feet by two feet."

He added that student volunteers from the National Service Scheme (NSS) picked up the raw materials, distributed them at the various "Sui Dhaga" centres in Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan and Ulhas Nagar among others, and delivered the final products to VVCMC on Saturday. The students used local trains to move around the district.

Transgender people from Ulhasnagar and Kalyan were included in the project under NGO's Akshay Shakti Trust. Simran, leading the transgender community of Ulhas Nagar on the project, said, "It is a moment of pride for our community members to have participated in stitching the national flag. We were able to do our bit to mark the 75th year of Independence." Iyer also informed that as per pre-agreed terms, VVCMC paid R4 per flag. Apart from financial help, the women were proud to have rendered their service to the nation.

Rs 4
Amount paid to women per flag