Kannur(Kerala) | In a quiet village in this north Kerala district, 28 women are reshaping the narrative around waste—cutting down local refuse and carbon emissions through grassroots innovation, while earning money for a dignified living, in the process.
Once limited to sanitation and waste management roles, these women belonging to the Haritha Karma Sena (HKS) at the Kannapuram Grama Panchayat have taken their mission a step further -- transforming discarded materials into opportunity, income, and dignity.
Under their initiative, old clothes find new life in their hands, reshaped into handmade pots, stylish bags, and eco-friendly home accessories. Broken LED bulbs, once tossed aside, are carefully repaired and made functional again.
And instead of promoting single-use plastics at weddings and other local functions, they offer plates and glasses for rent -- reducing both waste and cost for the community.
The bags, pots, and inoculum -- used to aid in composting wet waste -- generate revenue by utilising the garbage collected from households, while the renting out of plates and glasses-- under the Haritha Mangalyam initiative -- helps to reduce the generation of waste such as used paper or styrofoam cups and plates.
The repairing of LED bulbs helps reduce the carbon footprint and electronic waste, Sujna M, the Kannur District Resource Person under the Suchitwa Mission, told PTI.
Besides being environmentally friendly, the initiatives have also helped to almost double the income of those involved, making them more financially independent, said Nishita, who heads the 28-member HKS in Kannapuram village.
Additionally, the 28 women, aged between 37 and 65 years, also run house-cleaning and dishwashing units, which further help to augment their income, which was earlier entirely dependent on the user fee received from waste collection, she added.
"All these enterprises have helped the women increase their income from around Rs 15,000 per month to Rs 25,000 since October last year, when these initiatives were launched as part of a pilot project," Rathi, president of the Kannapuram Grama Panchayat, told PTI.
She further said that using cloth collected from households to make bags and pots is an important initiative run by the members of the HKS who have also gone to the central prison here as well as schools and colleges to impart training about it.
"Another profitable unit run by the HKS members is the dishwashing unit. It has turned into a good source of income for them," she added.
According to Sujna, Kannapuram is one of the five panchayats in the district that were selected for the pilot project.
"Five grama panchayats -- Kannapuram, Chapparapadavu, Payam, Kadirur and Peralassery -- were selected as models to implement the green initiatives as part of the overall aim to use HKS for complete waste disposal in the areas under them.
"We are collecting non-degradable and plastic waste from the households. Of all the panchayats in Kerala, Chapparapadavu is the one which has the distinction of completing the work in 10 days," she said, while speaking to PTI.
Soon we will be establishing a unit in these panchayats for collection of organic waste and converting it into fertiliser for crops, she added.
At Kannapuram, the 28-member HKS unit functions in four clusters in the 14 wards of the panchayat.
Giving details of the work done by them, Nishita said that collection of non-degradable waste from households is usually completed within the first 15 days of a month, leaving the remaining days for them to run these enterprises.
"Rest are run on the basis of orders received. There has been a good increase in our income since we began working on these initiatives," Nishita, who has been part of the HKS for the last six years, told PTI.
The pots cost between Rs 50 to Rs 100 based on their size, the bags are sold at Rs 5 a piece and one LED bulb is repaired for Rs 40 and the 28 members have been provided with an office space and room to carry out these activities, she said.
The LED bulb repairs benefit the house owners who do not have to buy new ones, she said, adding that LED bulbs discarded by people are repaired and used by the HKS for itself.
The overall aim behind these initiatives is to reduce the waste generated in a panchayat and the carbon footprint, Sujana said.
Kannur district has taken up these initiatives as a model, as it has led the way in implementing various other green measures -- like the first 'Haritha' railway station, and the first 'Haritha' jail, she said.
Another reason behind the move is the fact that the HKS members are free for more than half the month after they complete the waste collection process.
"During that time, they do not have the option to go for any other work, including under the MGNREGA scheme, as they may have to work if their services are suddenly required.
"So, all these initiatives were launched to help them earn extra income when they are free," she said.
