The post graduate students of Karnataka State Women’s University (KSWU), Vijayapura now not only have the chance to learn the skills of waste paper recycling, but can also establish one such unit in the future to generate employment.
The only women’s university in the State, known for taking several novel initiatives has set up a waste paper recycling unit with the aim of protecting the environment.
“The recycled waste paper can be used for manufacturing useful products. This would save many trees from being chopped off thanks to the ever growing demand for paper,” says Dr. Shantidevi. T, assistant professor, department of library and information science and co-ordinator of the unit. Set up under the Schedule Tribe Development Fund, she said that the University strongly believes in empowering women socially and economically and this unit is a step in that direction. The idea is to give free training to women in order to promote entrepreneurship among them. “The objective is to provide training in skill development to women to start their own unit. After the training they can not only establish their own unit, but can also provide jobs to many others”, she said.
Dr. Shantidevi said that the University provides training and certificate free of cost to those interested in learning the process. Elaborating on the aspects of training, she said that out of the 15 days of training, four days are meant for theory, during which topics such as entrepreneurship, communication skills and loan facilities from the bank will be explained to the women.
“The loan facility would help trainees to avail financial assistance from the banks to start their own unit,” Dr. Shantidevi said.
She said that though the training is offered to women irrespective of their caste or qualification, it was made clear that it will be offered only to a group of 30. Stating that each unit requires at least Rs. 6 lakh investment, she said that any Self Help Group (SHG) could start the unit for preparing envelopes, folders, writing papers, visiting/invitation cards and files using waste paper.
