This All-woman team aims to create trash-free cities

Have you ever wondered why your surroundings are not plastic free? In an endeavour to let people adopt eco-friendly initiatives, Ms Sahar Mansoor, founder of Home Care and Personal Care brand, Bare Necessities, has raised Rs 10 lakh on the crowd-funding platform Ketto.

With a team of five women, Ms Mansoor runs the brand with a mission to not let trash choke our cities.

One of the things that she takes pride in is that the enterprise is entirely run by women and the employment of local women is further honed by learning basic inventory management and English. “All our products are powered by natural, bare Indian ingredients, which have no harmful impact on our health or environment. Our raw materials are ethically sourced. All of our packaging is recyclable or biodegradable, which means nothing ends up in a landfill. All products are handcrafted by women in Karnataka,” Sahar says.

“Being raised by a single mother, I wanted to create an enterprise that empowers women,” she says.

“Currently, we are a small team of five. As we scale up, there is a potential to create more employment opportunities for local women in manufacturing. We can also provide more jobs to recent graduates who are interested in pursuing a career in the environmental sphere,” she explains.

She believes that the government should encourage manufacturers of eco-friendly products that do not end up in trash. “Additionally, we can work collectively with the government to improve waste collection infrastructure systems, such as creating waste bins for segregation (dry waste, wet waste, hazardous waste, recyclable waste) across the city, which can improve the quality of life of workers in the waste segregation space,” She says.

“There is a great need for official support to this unappreciated activity of waste pickers that saves at least 10-15 per cent in transportation costs daily to the city, adding up to millions of rupees a year. Over the years, civil society groups working with informal waste collectors have focused on several policies to promote this business – starting a dialogue to find out the needs of this sector, issuing ID badges to waste pickers who want them (through NGOs or police, to prevent harassment), providing them with sorting and storage space, and doorstep pickup service for post-sorting trash to be taken away from slum houses or waste buyers’ yards, so that these do not end up clogging storm drains," she elaborates.

In the coming months, Sahar is looking to growing the team, refine the products and develop some new ones. "We are also in the process of filing for our trademark. We thank Ketto for providing us this platform and opportunity to raise funds and reach more people,” she adds.