Doctoring the environment

Doctoring the environment

October 2022
Doctoring the environment 
Dr. Ruby Makhija of Delhi always wanted to do  something to make our cities and our country  cleaner and greener. Though most people  complain about the system in our country, she  wanted to be a part of the solution. 
Dr. Makhija felt strongly about the need  to reduce the use of single-use plastic, as it  impacts the environment hugely, and decided  to do something about it. In November 2021,  she launched an initiative for making cloth  bags and supplied them to the markets. In the  beginning, this initiative was not well received  by all because it was working out costlier than  plastic bags. Shopkeepers did not wish to keep  these bags for fear of losing their customers.  To get around this bottleneck, she started the  Why Waste Wednesday Foundation. Through  this foundation, she encourages people to ditch  
However, my family not only understood but  also supported me wholeheartedly.” She also  received full support from the Municipal  Corporation of Delhi, without whom it  wouldn’t have been possible to achieve her  goals. 
When ladies share their stories as to how Vikalp  helped them earn their livelihood and support  their families, it is truly overwhelming. They  use the earnings to send their kids to school or  buy books for them. 
Dr Makhija wishes to see every shop as a Vikalp  store so that consumers do not have to search  for a cloth bag. She also wants to expand the  services to include other alternatives to single 
use plastic. 
– By Jamuna Rangchari