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A colourful crochet blanket knitted by over 4,000 diaspora women was on Saturday presented to Prime Minister Modi on the final day of his maiden UK visit under a 'Chai pe Crochet' initiative.
The "unique" large-scale blanket made up of more than 2,500 little squares of crochet created by Indian women across the UK in their own individual styles was undertaken by the Indian Ladies in UK (ILU) group, that claims to have almost 5,000 Indian women mostly 1st generation immigrants from India as members.
"More than 4000 Diaspora women created this colourful crochet to highlight India's diversity and gender issues," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted along with a photograph of Modi being presented the multi-coloured blanket of crochet -- a handicraft in which yarn is made up into a textured fabric by means of a hooked needle.
ILU members met Modi at Taj St James -- where he has been staying during the visit -- to present the 'Unity in Diversity'
blanket, calling on the Indian Prime Minister to better engage with the Indian Diaspora community in the UK.
"Any such show of support from the global Indian community is very welcome to India," Modi told them.
The women were encouraged to use their personal creativity to create thousands of crochet squares to make up one large vibrant blanket.
"Modi told us that he had followed what we were doing in the past couple of days and commended us for keeping India's future in mind," said Poonam Joshi, ILU UK member and the brainchild behind the initiative.
"Modi speaks of 'Make in India', then enables us to 'Make it in India' by creating the right circumstances and opportunities for us," she added.
Among some of the specific issues the group is keen to highlight through the blanket include the need for better cultural education of NRI children in Britain and elsewhere by the setting up of dedicated Indian cultural education centres.
Another demand is that measures be put in place to educate women migrants before they leave India on their rights if fall victim to domestic violence outside India.
The ILU's Facebook page said the project "represents our unity as well as our gender, which is especially pertinent given Mr Modi's stance on the issue of Female Empowerment. The squares represent our individuality as Indians whilst the end product represents our Unity in Diversity."