Mangaluru: Wrapped with love and crafted from nature’s gifts to mankind, handmade art has always captured the heart in an unforgettable way. Its appeal lies in its simplicity, its hand-crafted aesthetics, and its concern for its roots – Mother Earth. Even a glimpse of the most rudimentary handmade product or art gives you that tingle that only love can bring!
A nationalism badge for future generations!
This year has been a difficult year for the world and for the world and our country for so many reasons, not the least of which is the COVID19 Pandemic.
It has changed the way we live, the way we celebrate events and it has reminded us of what is important – Our relationships and our environment. And we must keep this in mind as we celebrate our Independence Day on August 15th.
It is against this gloomy backdrop that social Entrepreneur Nitin Vas has brought out environmentally friendly plantable national flag based badges made from natural paper pulp, along with seeds through his business venture Paperseed which makes and sell environmentally friendly products for daily use by utilizing the art, skills and time of local artisans and helping sustain the environment in one go.
Each badge consists of seeds of passion fruit and tomatoes, crafted from raw and natural sources that have already been used.
Nitin Vas, Founder of the Paperseed, says that this makes the material recyclable, and encourages people to green the environment for a greater cause. “We initially started out with a project called e-paper, where old newspapers are recycled and new ones produced, embedded in seeds which grow into a new plant. This is just an extension of that project.”
Indeed, it is a welcome extension.
Badges are not the only product in Paperseed’s stable!
On the occasion of Raksha Bandhan, based on the theme ‘a bond of protection’, Paperseed also came up with eco-friendly paper seed and clay rakhis, which even as they were attractive, reminded both the giver and the receiver and others who saw it of the importance of being environmentally responsible.
Along with this innovation, Paperseed has come up with environmentally friendly and sustainable alternatives to items of daily use like paper-based seed embedded pens and pencils, baskets, greetings, environmentally friendly toothbrushes made of coconut shells, old newspapers, and used paper boxes, especially with bio-degradable ones.
“We are not just a money-making organization. We have a love of and a dedication towards the environment, and that is why we don’t use any plastic or chemicals and don’t produce anything that does not have raw materials that are directly extracted from nature”
The Social Entrepreneurial Journey
Established in 2017, Paperseed Swadeshi has been working on, and for the development of traditional craftsmanship and handmade mode of production. It is an SPV of a different kind – a social purpose vehicle – which creates employment and income opportunities for many people with a sustainable outcome.
Nitin says that together with 6 permanent members in the Paperseed family, around 15-20 members produce the materials traditionally. One of the biggest supporters of the Paperseed family is Reena D’Souza, who has helped with all the financial aspects of Paperseed.
Social media is not all evil; it has helped them gather fans for their cause and plans and has been one of their biggest marketing and selling platforms, with various NGO’s and environment groups joining hands with them, but the pandemic has hit them hard like everyone else. “The last three months have been a big challenge with all schools, colleges, programs, shut,” said Nitin, when asked about the hardships he faced due to the pandemic.
Nitin defines Paperseed as a commercial entity, with a social purpose. It has a profit motive that is subservient to the cause it espouses. It has a regular organizational structure and has a huge client base across India and covers almost the entire district of Dakshina Kannada, Karnataka.
With Master of Social Work (MSW) students volunteering to work with their paper seed village project, the company has distributed various commodities to many conferences and gatherings held in institutions across Mangalore and Manipal. Without running any stores, this team uses e-commerce for the sale of its products.
Nitin himself travels across the state and often the country visiting educational and other institutions to create awareness about environmental issues and how their use of Paperseed products can help in this mounting crisis.
Nitin says that the main objective of his initiative lies in focusing on the environment – “producing saleable and useful products without any destruction or harm to the natural resources around us. The usage of natural materials in the manufacture and the production of traditional commodities reduces the carbon footprint, which is a boon for the environment. Besides local artisans are helped to earn a sustainable livelihood”
Swadeshi: a new perception of the environment
As Gandhi once said, “The cleanest and the most popular form of Swadeshi is to stimulate hand-spinning and hand-weaving and to arrange for a judicious distribution of yarn and cloth so manufactured.”
To be one’s own and in his own country is the simplest definition of Swadeshi. The Paperseed project is currently running its project in a village, which needs its production facilities for its sustenance. Paperseed Swadeshi identifies and trains the people and rural women with activities of packaging and producing this eco-friendly produce.
“Sustainable commodities are prepared in a place where people are in real need of work. That is how paper seed functions – without machines. Our belief is that we must create opportunities for employment and individual growth. The outcomes are a precious combination of hand craft and local material imbibed with a personal and emotional touch.”
Nitin, the young social worker who is the brains behind this initiative, is also an artist with a keen sense for the creative streak in people. The company started with flags, Ganesh idols made from the paper pulp, and naturally made handcrafted Christmas decorations. “I did not want to be limited to one thing, instead wanted to find alternatives”.
“Our real wealth lies in the elements of our environment – air, water, soil, flora, and fauna and not in the weight of one’s pocket which makes you seem glamorous. When we do not care about the real wealth and care about the ones created by greed, violence, etc you are going to affected by that”
He values the belief that adding insult to injury – more destruction instead of conservation or recycling – is not the right way forward. He says that the beauty of nature in its entirety is a gift to every individual on this planet. He emphasizes, “the beauty of nature is a gift to every individual from their ancestors. Instead of destroying it, one should be able to find alternatives, as we are going to be the generation that decides the future of the country and indeed of the world. Coming up with suitable innovations that are environmentally sustainable, is my goal”.
Handmade crafts create an unseen bond between the consumer and an artisan that goes beyond normal relationships and Paperseed focuses on this relationship with due regard to sustaining the environment as we know it.
Kudos to them and a happy Independence Day.
