Ragpickers in Ahmedabad pick up a dignified living

Hansa Parmar, 40, used to gather paper waste from Ahmedabad streets to make a living for her family. To earn a meagre Rs 35-40 a day, Parmar and around 45,000 more women members of Gitanjali Co-operative walked around 10 km a day and collected paper waste to sell to a wholesaler.
 
Now these women have found a dignified job that pays double - Rs 90-100 per day. They make designer covers, notepads, pens made of paper and rough pads for corporates like Accenture and Staple.
 
To begin with around 50 women associated with Gitanjali Co-operative, part of Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), are involved in this venture. They make the articles in a factory room like trained professionals.
 
Chairperson of SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre Reema Nanavaty said this intervention was essential as the waste paper collecting job was not stable.
 
"During the recession in 2008 we observed that their income was affected drastically - by 75%. So, it was important to find a decent source of income for them to support their families. Experts from Accenture trained 50 women," she said.
Notepads and spring files made by members are also supplied to companies in USA and UK.

Minal Trivedi, manager of SEWA's Waste Pickers' Initiatives said that while professionals from Accenture helped them do the work faster and more accurately, now it was a challenge to provide integrated service at compatible rates to survive in the business.

Parvati Solanki, a member, said: "The professional trainers explained to us that out of sympathy clients may place an order a couple of times. But it is only through efficient work and professional attitude that we can bag more orders and survive competition."