Geetanjali Krishna: Recycling isn't wasted

PEOPLE LIKE THEM

Last winter at Dilli Haat, I saw three teenagers earnestly conducting a workshop on how to make pretty and practical things from waste materials, the first time I'd heard of the brand, Kabaad Se Jugaad "" loosely translated to mean 'innovations out of waste'.

This was the brainchild of Karmmarg, an NGO that's been working since 1997 with people they call 'young adults on the street.'

"We wanted to give children and teenagers who came to us, some vocational training, and then, some employment that would give them an option to living on the streets," said Veena, one of the co-founders of Karmmarg, "but it was tough to think of what they could actually do."

Teenagers who'd lived on the streets for a while, she explained, had a very different outlook on life: "They're often extremely independent-minded and unused to discipline. Some have behavioural problems and are aggressive "" not the qualities best-suited for office jobs," she explained wryly.

So Karmmarg decided to help its friends off the street, find some business to generate income.

"Obviously, the next question was what they could do easily that didn't cost much to set up," reminisced Veena. That is how the idea of working with waste materials arose. People Tree, a Delhi-based store, gave them their first order for newspaper bags.

"We began with using just two raw materials, old newspapers and glue," said Veena. They got a good response, and soon the store began sending them waste textile scraps as well, which the innovative children of Karmmarg converted into pouches and bags. One order led to the next, and thus Kabaad Se Jugaad took off.

Today, apart from old newspapers and textile clippings, they use empty bottles (to make candle stands), leather cuttings (to plait and use as bag handles), plastic strips (to embroider on jute bags), paint tins (to convert into planters) "" even old CDs, which they convert into funky looking clocks.

Kabaad Se Jugaad also has a trendy line of stationery made with handmade paper, and is reputed to do a great customisation job on old jeans. Friends of Karmmarg donate the raw materials, but it's the children that keep the project alive.

"Normally, we find it really difficult to keep up the interest levels of our children "" but this work is so creative that they just love being involved," said Veena. In order to improve their finish and create better designs, the project now has an accessory designer designing handbags for them.

"The children are very excited about working with a professional. In fact, we've also done a nice range of wallpaper designs, for which an artist friend came forward to train the children," Veena said. Apart from retailing at People Tree and other select retail outlets across India, they export jute and newspaper bags too.

Today, one of the biggest achievements of Karmmarg has been that amongst the first batch of children they befriended, 15 have started their own unit, manufacturing products from waste. The remaining older children today supervise and market Karmmarg products.

"Most of our younger children are academically inclined, they all go to school. So we've trained the women of Kheri Kalan, the Faridabad village we live in, to manufacture our products. And we give salaries to the older children working for the project," said Veena.

Listening to the busy hum of people working, thinking, creating, and yes, making money, I couldn't help but wonder at how Kabaad Se Jugaad has helped these children to create something so meaningful from the waste of their earlier lives.