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| Sumathi, Cheranallur Panchayat, Ernakulam |
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As member
of the Harita Karma Sena, an initiative of the Kudumbasree Mission for waste
management at grassroots level, Sumathi handles various plastic wastes like
water bottles.
It kept her
thinking if the same could be used to build a country boat. As a young girl, she had wanted to own such a
country boat. That urge came back to the
mind of this grandmother in her.
Her first
attempt with plastic bottles alone proved unsuccessful as the jugad lacked
balance. Analysing the fault, she
revised the prototype and chose soda bottles, which also she used to gather in
her work.
This time
there was another motivation for doing the innovation. The Cheranallur Panchayat, where she worked,
had organized a competition for Harita Karma Sena members on the theme ‘India’. She persisted and worked during spare time at
night and completed her innovation.
The total
cost of the project was just Rs. 80 for two rolls of cello tapes. The other raw materials were merely collected
as waste.
It was adjudged
the third best entry among many. After
going in the boat solo for some distance, she made her grandson sit on it and
rowed him for some time. Later she added
the coordinator of their work also for the boat-ride.
She uses
her self-made boat to row across the river and remove non-biodegradable waste
from the waters. Perhaps a tiny effort
like the squirrel’s in the Ramayana. Nonetheless a satisfying engagement for
Sumathi
Shahina K.K. (text), Outlook, Mar 8, 2024
