Demand for cotton bags brings smiles to women

CUTTACK: The polythene ban imposed by the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) in the millennium city has brought smiles to a group of women from the backward deprived sections.  The group of around 45 women from the Muslim community in Kesharpur are churning out net cotton bags as substitutes for the polythene and supplying them to the shops, malls and other business establishment. The demand for alternatives to polythene bags has spelt a windfall for these women.  In the last 20 days since the complete ban on polythene was imposed, the women working under the Khwaja Garib Nawaj self-help group (SHG) have sold over 20 to 30 quintal of net cotton bags in various sizes and contours.  “The idea to manufacture substitute eco-friendly bags struck us as soon as the CMC announced the ban. In fact, we are now having our hands full and working round-the-clock to meet the orders. Each of us is making around ` 100-150 a day by bag stitching and stamping,” says Salma Begum of Kesharpur. The net cotton fabric and materials are being procured from Kolkata and Delhi in bulk. They are cut and stitched or heat pasted into standard bags or are customised as per specifications by the shopkeepers or establishments. The workers apart, a marketing team has been formed not only to solicit orders but also do door-to-door selling of the products. “Sale has gone up significantly to the tune of over 2 quintal a day in the last one week. We now have orders for over 600 quintal in hand,” says SHG coordinator Mohsin Mallik. According to Chief Executive of ORMAS, Cuttack, Bipin Behari Rout, the women have undergone training to churn out quality products. Tie-ups are now being made with bigger establishments like Reliance Fresh stores, malls and showrooms in the city. Buoyed up by the response, the district administration as well as the CMC have moved forward to provide display points to the group at strategic locations like the Annapurna Store near the Collectorate, Choudhury Bazaar and the Krushak Bazaar. “We want to not only popularise the substitutes but also seed the culture of complete abandonment of polythene products among the people, Collector KK Mohanty said.