While everyone keeps raving about how the city of joy is a hub of culture and flavour, they often miss out on the changemakers working tirelessly to make the city a better place to live in. We speak with five such changemakers.
Amrita Roy Chowdhury, founder, The Charkha
For the past two and a half years, Chowdhury’s organisation has been providing a platform for underprivileged and differently-abled individuals to learn, sharpen and display their talents for a viable livelihood. She mentions, “The prime focus was to provide a platform for those with developmental disabilities to come and get trained for their livelihood and also to pick up dying arts like block printing, natural dye, different types of embroideries from the last generation artisans and create first generation artisans.” With around 50 working members in the team, Charkha is a strong inclusive community that is continuing its journey to sensitise the general public regarding disability and handmade products. In 2024, they are planning to go digital as well and do good market research.
Suhrid Chandra, founder, Hari Mitti
With concerns over quality food growing stronger by the day, Hari Mitti’s conscious efforts to make people aware and create organic farming conditions are influencing consumer patterns to a great degree. Its founder, Suhrid Chandra says, “The basic objective is to promote chemical-free farming on your rooftop or land. The root cause of all diseases is what we eat. So if we can make food work as medicine, then the world will be healthier”. Their six-year-long journey hasn’t been an easy one. “To convince people and make them understand the joy of growing, has been tough. But gradually they do understand
the importance of organic farming. To date, we have installed more than 700 rooftop farms and 60 small and midsize land farms. We also have an organic farm near Sonarpur where one can subscribe for a plot of land and grow vegetables. Marginalised farmers are trained to produce chemical-free vegetables and pulses,” he adds. They now plan to focus more on the circular economy to benefit all.
Somini Sen Dua, founder, Mrittika Earthy Talks
Publicist-turned-climate warrior Somini Sen Dua’s Mrittika Earthy Talks campaigns relentlessly to make people aware of the changing climate and how one can strive to make things better by opting for
alternate lifestyle products. “My objective has been to create a climate-conscious community. A lot of people want to contribute towards a better environment but they don’t know how and where they are going wrong. I lead that life myself with only handlooms, chemical-free, organic farming and such. Currently, we are into plastic waste awareness and abolition, making eco-bricks, and more,” says Somini. In the later years, she adds, “We would want to do something with water. We want to do more plantations and take our handicrafts to other states. I believe in YOLO , You only live once, so make it matter.”
Nandan Mall, chairman and managing director, Hulladek Recycling Pvt Ltd
Hulladek Recycling is authorised by the Central Pollution Control Board to collect and channelise electronic waste with a focus on enabling organisations to manage their compliance through waste disposal and recycling. Mall says, “In 10 years, we have diverted 5 million kg of e-waste from landfills and worked with some of the most prominent organisations of the country, helping them manage their electronic, plastic and battery waste.” In the last decade, Hulladek has worked actively to create awareness among all sections of society. “Even though our primary focus has been educating the younger generations, we have also paid equal attention to reaching out to corporates, government departments, homemakers as well as rag pickers and the local scrap dealers. We have observed a growth
of 200% in electronic waste collection from households across Bengal,” he adds. Hulladek aims at expanding its boundaries to different parts of the country and diversifying the waste streams into plastic, tyre, battery and oil waste.
Ayush Sarda, founder, Ek Packet Umeed
Ek Packet Umeed was primarily founded to provide education to poor children from Sunderbans’ villages, along with generating income for women and promoting rural artisans from Santiniketan. Sarda says, “We could build two schools in the Sunderbans, providing education to about 300 children.
One of the schools is completely eco-friendly and is built using waste materials from real estate sites. Besides, we organise an annual event, Soil to Soul, to create an incubator in the city by bringing the artisans who promote their new collections. We have also planted more than 25,000 mangrove trees in the Sunderbans to help reduce the intensity of the cyclones hitting that area and about 1,000 fruit trees to create an orchard employing 50 women.” They plan to offer classes till the secondary level and set up a permanent rural incubator in Santiniketan.