Sindri slum children busy making rakhis at a Prayaas India centre in Dhanbad on Wednesday. Picture by Gautam Dey

For more than 200 slum children of Dhanbad, rakhi celebrations have started early.

The children, all studying at centres run by Prayaas India — the students’ society of BIT-Sindri that teaches slum children — got a chance to let loose their creative side on Wednesday as they worked with threads, decorative items, brush, colours and canvas to come up with beautiful rakhis and drawings. The occasion was a rakhi making-cum-drawing competition organised by Prayaas India.

The programme, held at centre No. III of Prayaas India, kicked off with a rakhi drawing contest in which around 130 students of junior KG to Class V competed with each other. The participants hailed from different localities of Sindri, including Saharpura, Domgarh, Rodhabandh, Kandra, Tasra and Gaushala Bazar.

A former student of BIT-Sindri (2007 batch), Deepak Chandramukhi, who is currently posted at Jharia division of Tata Steel, was the judge.

“We provided required materials — brushes, colours, pencils and drawing sheets — to the students of our education centres. The competition went on for an hour,” said final-year chemical engineering student, Dhandeo Kumar, who is also the president of Prayaas India. The drawing contest was followed by rakhi-making competition in which more than 70 students of Class VI and beyond took part.

“We will announce the names of the winners on the occasion of rakhi on August 2. The idea was to promote creativity among students,” said the convener of Prayaas India.

The students simply loved wielding the brush and innovating with the thread.

Rajni Kumar, a Class IX student of centre III, said: “We had a great time. The contests let us show our creative side.”

Prayaas India was set up in 2008 with funds generated from sale of old newspapers. The students’ society runs five education centres at Sindri — centre I near the institute’s main gate, centre II at DAV Tasra, School, centre III at Domgarh, centre IV at Gaushala Bazar and centre V near Saharpura check post. The students are taught for free every day from 6pm to 8pm except Sunday.