Nilanjana Das: Helping Rural Homemakers Soar with 'Paper Wings' of Artistic Treasures
This post features our newest Council Member Nilanjana Das, founder of the Action Centre of Transformation (ACT), an organisation focused on generating livelihoods through sustainability.
Nilanjana Das is a social entrepreneur and social work practitioner who is passionate about sustainability and empowering rural communities, particularly women, through creativity, art and innovation. After ten years of learning and practical experience that gave her a deep understanding of working with rural communities, Nilanjana decided to do something of her own that would fulfil her long-held desire to turn a social entrepreneur. Thus was born the Action Center for Transformation (ACT), a Gurugram-based civil society organisation (CSO), with a focus on building sustainable initiatives for the economic empowerment of rural women.
ACT is registered with the NITI Aayog and the Development Commissioner for Handicrafts, Ministry of Textiles. Since its inception in 2010, the organisation has been relentlessly working on developing a community of rural women upcyclers who work with waste paper to make eco-friendly handcrafted products for everyday use and decorative and festive purposes.
The products are marketed under the brand Kagaaz Ke Pankh (Paper Wings). Through Paper Wings, Nilanjana wants to bring about a shift in consumer behaviour and build an environment-conscious community of consumers who view upcycling and recycling as the norm rather than the exception.
Being passionate about sustainable practices and the green economy, Nilanjana brings her experience as an advisor to a number of civil societies and business organisations on various social initiatives.
Recognition
Nilanjana is a REX Karmaveer Global Fellow, where she received the Bronze (2015) and Silver medals (2016) for her work. She has been a regular speaker at the National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship on the theme ‘Social Entrepreneurship for a Sustainable Planet’ at her alma mater, the Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur.
Nilanjana’s journey into the realm of rural development began with an undergraduate degree in rural management from the Xavier Institute of Social Sciences (XISS). She is also a Women Entrepreneur and Empowerment (WEE) Fellow, an initiative by IIT Delhi. She is a co-founder of the Indian Women Social Entrepreneurs Network (IWSEN), and an active member of Climate Ready for Women in Upcycling, India.
The Genesis: How ACT and Paper Wings Came About
Every year, planet Earth generates over 2 billion tons of municipal waste, a global crisis threatening the environment and the health and safety of people, especially the poorest and the most vulnerable. It is significant to note that paper accounts for more than 25% of landfill waste and 35% of municipal waste in the world. Action Centre for Transformation (ACT) is working since 2010 to bring about sustainable solutions to this crisis while generating livelihoods for rural homemakers and helping them develop a voice of their own.
Conscientious citizens around the world are increasingly demanding upcycled paper products as they are cost-effective and environmentally safe. ACT uses the concept of ‘Upcycling’ to develop durable lifestyle products using waste paper.
During one of her visits to a rural area of Haryana, Nilanjana met women who were in dire need of a consistent source of income. After meeting a number of corporates, she realised that corporations were not willing to support a programme to generate income for rural women; however, they were willing to give away paper waste. This gave her something to think about and eventually led to the conceptualisation of Paper Wings, a social enterprise, to create an opportunity out of two problems – paper waste generated in urban locations and a lack of sustainable livelihood for women in rural areas.
Building on the knowledge of the age-old paper-mache technique, ACT introduced upcycling to rural communities in the proximity of Gurugram and linked women from deprived societal classes with urban customers.
ACT began this enterprise with just five women in a Harijan cluster of Bhandhwari village in Haryana, and just two products. Since then, ACT has trained more than 500 women from landless and low-income families belonging to disadvantaged caste groups. They have learned not only how to make upcycled paper products but also to manage supply chain logistics, quality control and marketing. The decades-long effort has gradually empowered these women to attain financial independence and self-sufficiency.
More than 500 women, organised into 50 self-help groups (SHGs), have been connected with financial institutions and marketing platforms. They save their earnings from the sale of these products. Their efforts are creating a growing market for paper-upcycled goods as a solution to the problem of paper waste in India.
The Product
Paper Wings products are available on various e-commerce platforms. They can also be ordered directly from ACT through Facebook, Instagram, or email: actgreenindia@gmail.com or nilanjanaactindia@gmail.com.
