An eco-friendly way to bag those greens

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s message of Kar ke Dekho, a group of 10 women in Nashik have started a movement to encourage the use of cloth bags and reject plastic ones.

Members of Aksharnaad, from Mahatmanagar in Nashik generally gather every week to read and discuss books. But last year, they also did something else. They started workshops on making clay Ganapatis and taught others like them to make such idols for the ten-day festival. The idea was to be as environment-friendly as possible.

These days, they are leading the crusade against plastic bags. So they’ve come up with the idea of making cloth bags and distributing these among shopkeepers in the area. “We knew ours would be a small effort but we decided to achieve a positive change,” said Vandana Atre, the founder member.

First, the women bought clothes they did not need, cut them into shape and four of the members stitched these together. They were helped by the two shopkeepers, Bhavesh Patel at the grocery store and Raju Handge at the vegetable stall.

“I had urged customers to switch to cloth or paper bags but wasn’t successful,” said Bhavesh. “But when this group approached me, I took it up again.” Nowadays, Bhavesh gives his customers the cloth bags free of cost and requests them to bring it back when they return to his store.

“Initially many people ridiculed this move, now I think they are more accepting of it now,” said Bhavesh. Raju sells the bag for Rs5. “It is difficult to convince people not to use plastic, but I do my best,” said Raju.

The group collects old clothes from friends and gets these stitched into bags by four women they have employed. “This is not a business for us. We would like to see people here chose a cloth bag, voluntarily, every time they shop. Till then our mission won’t be over,” said Sanjeevani Deodhar, a group member.