Youngsters from Vadodara collecting Pasti to help economically weaker section

A group of youngsters in Vadodara city of Gujarat started a movement to help the lower middle class families by collecting the ‘Pasti’ from the people.

The group kept a target in mind to collect the Pasti and then sell it to help the economically weaker section of the society.

The movement called ‘Sacchidanand’ is growing stronger day by day as the volunteers collect around 3000kgs of Pasti from different parts of the city in less then one month. The group is planning to collect 10,000kgs till Diwali and targeting to collect 50,000kgs of Pasti till December.

“In this movement we’ve planned to collect as much PASTI (पस्ती) as we can and in return give out daily food items e.g. Oil and ration to the not very economically strongest class of the society. Along with that we plan to give blankets and shawls to the people staying on the roads,” said Smit Thakur leading the movement.
Every day 18 to 20 volunteers roam across the schools, coaching classes, societies and industrial areas to collect Pasti from there. The group collects newspapers, notebooks, card boards, cartons etc. and stored them at a place to sell it later. “We target to collect as much Pasti to help the needy later on. We store all the collection at one place and will sell it later on and afterwards help the economically weaker section of the city. We are also making a list of the needy ones which helps us to distribute the things to real needy people,” said Thakur.
On the last day of Navratri a garba venue invited the ‘Sacchidanand’ volunteers to their venue and give them the Pasti as a Mahaprasaadi to them. “The Prajapati samaj at Sama Abhilasha area invited us to their garba venue and we told them about our movement. There are around 2500 families in the area and they all give us their Pasti as a Mahaprasaadi after the Maa Arti,” said Thakur.

The ‘Sacchidanand’ movement volunteers are not taking any money or cash from the well wishers and request them to give Pasti only to them. “We are only taking Pasti from the people and after the collection stored them at one place. We plan to sell the Pasti later and whatever amount we generate we will use it to buy oil and ration for the economically weaker section and blankets and sweaters for the people staying on roads,” said Thakur.