Hope GLEAMs for destitute women

Guwahati: Mahima Das of the city’s Kharghuli area has reason to be delighted. In her 60s, Mahima would while away her time even a year ago. Today, she participates in conserving nature and earns a few thousand to boot.
Mahima and others like her have Growth Livelihood Education And Morality (GLEAM), an NGO, to thank for. The NGO not only engaged the city’s destitute women and taught them to make user-friendly paper bags, it also opened up a new horizon for them.
“I’m very happy. Besides earning money, I am participating in nature conservation,” Das told TOI at the paper-bag manufacturing centre at Kharghuli hilltop.
Eleven others, excluding Das, have been engaged in this job at two centres in the city. All of them come from an impoverished background. The women use old newspapers to make well-crafted bags which can be used to carry various items of daily use.
“We started this project in 2013, keeping two things in mind. Firstly, we wanted to minimize the use of plastic bags. Second, we wanted to engage destitute women so that they can earn money through this project,” said GLEAM director Pranjal Kumar Das.
Ensuring the women’s ease of movement, GLEAM chose to locate its bag manufacturing units in areas close to its employees’ dwellings.
The NGO urges people to donate old newspapers and presents them with the new and decorative paper bags. As of now, GLEAM’s manufacturing unit produces 8,000 bags per month. There are six varieties of bags, each weighing between 1kg and 15kg. GLEAM goes through around 30 quintals of newspapers for the job.