Kochi: After playing proactive roles in flood-relief work, hundreds of techies based in Infopark and Technopark have embraced ‘Chekutty’– an initiative under which dolls are made of soiled textile from the flood-hit looms of Chendamangalam to aid the residents weave their life back to normal.
“We too want to be part of the rebuilding exercise in whatever way we can. The first day itself saw nearly 1,000 orders for ‘Chekutty’ dolls from software employees,” said Anish Panthalani, secretary of Progressive Tech-ies (PT), a socio-cultural organisation of Kerala IT employees. Infopark CEO Hrishikesh Nair handed over a ‘Chekutty’ doll to local self-governing minister A.C. Moideen during the launch of the initiative on Friday morning. Collector K. Muhammed Y. Safirulla, MLAs Hibi Eden, P.T. Thomas and V.P. Sajeendran were among those present.
“We aim to make and sell 10,000 dolls out of the severely-damaged handloom stock from Chendamangalam. We’ve written to the staff of over 90 IT companies, urging them to buy the dolls (priced at Rs 25 per piece). While the dolls can be used to decorate car interior, bags, workplace and the like, they will provided positive energy to us, reminding us of our good deeds every day,” Anish said. A one-day ‘camp’ will be held at Thapasya Hall, Infopark, to make the dolls en masse.
“The ‘Chekutty’ organisers will provided us handloom sarees and also train us in the doll-making exercise. Anyone can volunteer and be part of the camp,” he said.
An upfront payment of Rs 9,000 per saree will be made to the organisers. Nearly 360 dolls can be made out of a single saree. The organisers in turn hand over the proceedings to the Karimpadam handloom weavers society in Chendamangalam.
