Pune: “People often accuse Dhol-Tasha pathaks of causing problems during Ganesh festival, and ask what do they do with so much money that they earn during the festival.

The answer to this is that throughout the year, the pathaks carry out various social activities and try to give back to the society in different ways,” Vaibhav Wagh of Yuva Vadya Pathak said.

He and Akshay Balkawde were speaking at an event organised by Sutradhar on Sunday.

Wagh said, “Most of the pathaks in the city work throughout the year for the upliftment of the disadvantaged. Some pathak members work in the rural areas, while some work with the underprivileged people, orphans and elderly.

Yuva Vadya Pathak, which is an extension of Vande Mataram Sanghatana organises Pustak Dahi Handi and distributes books to the underprivileged children for the past 13 years.

For the last two years, we have been sending the books to the children in the Naxalite area of Gadchiroli.

Apart from that, we have several activities like holding blood donation camps, celebrating Diwali with orphans.”

Talking about the projects by Shiv Samrajya, Akshay Bakawde said, “Apart from the usual events, we have a programme called ‘Janeev Sunday’, where we spend several Sundays with the people who need us at orphanages, old age homes, hospitals, and so on.”

Chatting with the hosts, the two also spoke about the beginning of their journey with the pathaks and their experiences.

The event ended with a performance by the players from Yuva Vadya Pathak.