Bhubaneswar: Raja festival that marks the spirit of womanhood is a time when women get a well-deserved break from the humdrum of life and pamper themselves by indulging into fun activities. Buying new clothes is a must for the festival.

Taking the opportunity of the festive time, a group of youngsters from the city conducted a campaign titled Vastra Raja, an initiative to distribute clothes among the underprivileged girls.

They have tied up with corporate houses, business establishments and health clubs to organise a massive collection drive and donate these clothes.

The drive started on May 24 and continued till June 11. It generated a huge response with a collection of more than 10,000 apparels. Under the programme, a van reached various slums across the city to distribute these attires.

"This year we had tied up with 25 organisations who donated clothes for our drive. Friends and acquaintances have also contributed to our initiative," said Rudra Samantaray, who is spearheading the campaign.

"The collected attires were cleaned, pressed and packed according to sizes and age groups of the girls," he said.

The van reached six slums in prime locations of the city. It covered Sahu Basti, Unit-3, Patel Basti, Unit-2, Netaji Basti, Vani Vihar, Maharaja Basti, Acharya Vihar, Behera Basti, Bhoi Nagar and Bayababa Basti and Unit-9.

Samantaray also runs a youth group under the banner "Jai Odisha". In 2016, the group had set up an apparel store for underprivileged people who can get clothes for free at the store. The store titled Vastra has been set up at Saheed Nagar here.

"We thought a permanent store would serve a larger purpose," Rudra said. Raja fervour is at its peak with the festival set to begin on June 14.

Women of various age groups can be seen shopping at sari shops, shopping malls and designer stores which are also offering heavy discounts to woo women.