Creating livelihood opportunity
This program on Recycling Waste has taken a shape of full-fledged community enterprise that also mainstreams poor waste workers. The project has developed a women led micro-enterprise; those are trained to recycle waste paper, plastics and wet wastes from the city’s dustbins to make micro-utility household products. The products not only earn a livelihood for hundreds of women wasteworkers but more so it earns a dignity for them through inclusive growth & socioeconomic mainstreaming.
Training and Capacity building
SAFE imparts training for skill development of the poor women from community and special emphasis is given on the empowerment of men & women wastepickers, who are the most marginal and the vulnerable section of society.
The program encourages & promotes sale of eco-friendly useful products like Biofertilizers and Paper Mache products. The revenue generated from them helps in supporting the monthly stipend of communities involved & in the sustenance of this green initiative.
Working women members within Resolve T2C have emerged as artisans and more women have attained the skill of paper mache art through a number of advance training sessions conducted on the trade of recycling. They, now, regularly participate in symposiums, exhibitions, cultural fairs and receive accolades from buyers, corporate clients etc. The team is leading the mission of institutionalizing waste recycling as an art.
Participatory meetings, awareness sessions, workshops those are done regularly now, propose solutions to social problems, builds support system to innovation, improvement and adaptation. This gives a systematic direction to mainstreaming of the women waste workers as climate entrepreneurs.
Participating in sales and exhibitions
Regular Sale cum exhibitions; revenue returns- SAFE on regular basis organizes exhibition & sale in various corporate houses around DLF & Sector V. Further our products are also purchased by the US Consulate & the German Consulate in Kolkata. As the recycled products started receiving overwhelming response from the customers & we gained a momentum, we decided to take it up to general public. For this we express our gratitude to Government of West Bengal for supporting this venture & giving us the opportunity to participate in a series of important fairs organized under namely SabalaMela, Milan Mela, etc every year. The products under the brand name of Resolve T2C made a great sale. The uniqueness of the products allured many eminent personalities into visiting our stall, appreciating & purchasing our products.
In the beginning of the year 2016, Resolve Trash2Cash made its debut at the grounds of Mahalaxmi Sarasmela in Mumbai organized by Government of Maharashtra where we represented our state with the support of NABARD.
Women empowerment
The Rt2C initiatives under Match International Women’s Fund (MIWF) support directly addressed the rights of the poor women &women waste workers in Kolkata city and their families, who had migrated from rural outskirts in search of livelihood opportunity and settled in peri-urban shanty towns as ‘citizens of dirt’ with rag picking from streets of Kolkata as their only survival strategies being ostracized from mainstream development program of the state.
Health care awareness camps for women ragpickers
The team organizes a series of health awareness camps with these women, giving live demonstration of personal hygiene, preventive care, reproductive health and first aid. Health and sanitation kit have been provided to all women for regular usage. They are currently using those gloves, masks, antiseptics etc while handling wastes and segregating for workshop use. They are now ready to even spend an amount per month for the same as they feel this has added to their comfort andis extremely beneficial for health. This has given a sense of pride and as well they had learnt to value their own self.
Identity created
Working women members of ResolveT2C are bank linked and have become holders of bank accounts, which in fact was their first social accreditation. They now manage the financial returns and as well their raw material stock, production line, quality control of goods, sale proceeds and the overall merchandizing of the products.
Right to dignity
Subsequently, women members have become much more aware of their right to health, right to dignity, right to water and sanitation, right to identity and importantly right to freedom. Similarly the sense of belongingness has raised the sense of responsibility to work. This has happened with the structuring of the operational systems and administration, skill building, exposure visits etc.
Women leaders
Women who are already mainstreamed and working efficiently under the Resolve Trash2Cash now impart skill building training to other women through organized workshops, and they as ‘trainers of the trainees’, earn an amount for conducting each such workshop. Moreover, the new women groups while receiving training interact with the trainers, and learn more about their empowerment and socio-economic transition.