On the joyous occasion of Ganeshotsav (annual celebration of the elephant-headed god, not surprisingly the lord of wisdom!), Tanishka Foundation members decided to aim for a zero-tolerance to plastic bags, purchased and dumped by visiting devotees in their village. Led by Swati, the young and dynamic village head of Ranjangaon in her 30s, they started with breaking this effort in planned phases. This strategy is simple – enrolling in, scaling up and marketing out.

The first part was the buy-in of the villagers and traders of this temple town. The village general body meeting on October 2 (Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary) was chosen for this messaging. The project involves banning the use of polythene bags below 40 microns in its first phase. That too after capacities are created to fill that demand by paper bags. The paper bags will be produced in house by local women. Step-by-step as the production becomes formalised, a total plastic ban will be made effective.

The work has begun with 51 Tanishka Foundation members having undergone the basic training of making paper bags at home. Of the total, 4 women have now scaled up to full-scale production. As the others catch up, a twin effort is on. On one side, more women are being encouraged to be trained; while elsewhere existing trainees are trying to begin production and create more market. And their aim is grand enough i.e. to make all major pilgrimage in the state, centres plastic-free and paper-loving!