While swimming in the tank, the colourful fish very often group near the glass wall to check on the busy workers' activities outside. There is a man and a woman busy sorting bundles after bundles of papers with extreme deftness. Six days a week, Mukesh and Aarti (name changed) discard the torn and crumpled sheets of paper with faulty edges and keep the neater ones. Leading independent and satisfied lives now, their journey had not been so easy although. Both of them were caught strongly in the vortex of drug addiction, before they discovered to start life afresh with ‘Project Akshar'.
Project Akshar is an initiative by the students of Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies (SSCBS). Through this social outreach project, they provide sustainable business opportunities to hearing impaired women and victims of substance abuse and abandonment. The students train them in binding books, which helps them in generating a substantial income. “We collect paper from schools, colleges, residential societies and also corporate houses. The paper is already used on one side and we deliver it at our three production houses where notebooks are made from them,” explains Mrigank Sanghvi, a first-year team member of Students of Free Enterprise (SIFE) from SSCBS.
Sahara is one such production house in Saket. Framed certificates hanging on the walls bear testimony to the success of this venture. As she runs after the paper sheets blown away by the rotating fan, Aarti shares her experience with a smile: “When I first stepped through this door, I had little hope that anything will change. But it did and I have completely given up on drugs.”
Pointing at a huge stack of paper in the room's corner, Mukesh gives a hearty laugh, “Doing all this keeps my mind occupied and I don't think of drugs and alcohol. Sometimes, we pressurise the students by demanding more paper for binding are put under so much pressure by us. We keep demanding more and more paper to bind.”
Apart from the partially used sheets, fully used paper is also being recycled and made into notebooks now. The eco-friendly notebooks are sold in urban markets through stores and student networks in over 47 institutions. The proceeds from the sale of these notebooks go to book binders like Aarti and Mukesh. “It is a very bright idea to use the unused side of the paper. The paper which we discard so carelessly can find use is such innovative ways. And it is so much fun to read the used side while writing on the blank part,” says a satisfied customer. The one-side-used notebooks are supplied to underprivileged children through partner NGOs at Re. 1. Furthermore, a fixed educational reserve of notebooks ensures a steady supply of notebooks to the underprivileged children. One excited team member says, “We have schemes that allow companies orindividuals to not only buy the notebooks but also sponsor them for underprivileged children…So far, 1,200 children have benefited from all these initiatives.”
It all started a year ago when an idea was hammered into Project Akshar following several meetings, discussions and arguments in the canteen. The students contacted and pursued corporate houses to provide them with paper or machinery for the production houses.
The students' commitment and dedication reflects from the fact that many of the team members have not gone home during the summer holidays to work for the SIFE regional competition. Mridul, another team member, says, “We created Project Akshar because we wanted to tackle three of the most pressing issues affecting India today — unemployment, education problems and damage to the environment. Unlike doing charity, which is usually a one-time affair, through this project we try to create a long lasting impact by generating a source of livelihood for marginalised communities. It is extremely fulfilling to know that all the effort and hard work we put in is making a difference in someone's life”.
