Punjab Flood Relief Gets an Unlikely Push from Two Young Amritsar Sisters

In a state still tallying the extent of its flood losses and the gaps in rehabilitation, the most unexpected gesture came this week from two children in Amritsar—an intervention that quietly cut through the political noise surrounding the state’s reconstruction effort.

Seven-year-old Moksh Soi and six-year-old Shrinika Sharma, who had put up a small exhibition of crocheted items—an amateur venture by any measure—decided to donate the entire proceeds to families hit by the recent floods. The display, titled “Crochet of Kindness,” might have passed off as one of the many school-level initiatives that surface periodically, but its outcome has resonated far beyond its modest scale.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who has been travelling across affected districts to keep up the momentum of Mission Chardikala, met the young sisters and publicly acknowledged their contribution. Calling it a “reminder of Punjab’s inherent instinct to stand up for one another,” Mann used the moment to underscore what his administration has been attempting to project—that rebuilding cannot rest solely on the state machinery, already stretched thin by competing demands.

The floods, which inundated large swathes of farmland and displaced thousands, have left behind a trail of uneven recovery. In several pockets, families continue to navigate bureaucratic delays and interim relief, waiting for compensation assessments to translate into disbursements. Opposition parties have been quick to flag administrative lapses, while the government maintains that ground surveys and verification processes take time.

In this political back-and-forth, the children’s gesture has acquired an unexpected sharpness. It has highlighted, without rhetoric, how individual acts can fill the moral vacuum that often surrounds slow-moving state responses. Officials in Chandigarh admitted—off record—that such symbolic interventions tend to galvanise volunteer groups and local networks far more effectively than formal advisories.

What stands out is not the amount raised by the sisters but the contrast it draws: while adults argue over jurisdiction and procedural sequencing, two children responded to the crisis with an instinctive clarity. Their earnings may not shift the ledger of Punjab’s massive reconstruction bill, but the message travels wider—solidarity, even when expressed in the smallest denominations, has its own administrative weight.

As the state government presses ahead with its Chardikala-led relief narrative, this story from Amritsar sits at the intersection of sentiment and governance. It is a reminder that Punjab’s recovery may depend as much on community-led compassion as on official policy rollouts. In a state accustomed to political contestation framing every public issue, this small act has momentarily reset the lens.