Mandala

Mandala

MANDALA 

Women’s Empowerment  Comes to the Fore(st)

Atrained ecologist,  

Manju Vasudevan  always loved nature  and wildlife. Like most  

researchers, she was  often accompanied by  indigenous people on  surveys, which helped her  in knowing them better.  She also spent time in  organisations like the  Keystone Foundation  where community centred conservation was  undertaken. Her desire to  help indigenous people,  preserve their incredible  knowledge, and popularise  their low-carbon footprint  lifestyle made her form the  NGO, Forest Post. 

Manju knows that forest dependent communities in  India harvest a range of wild  resources and products.  

A large part of Minor Forest  Products (MFP) collections  contributes to the income  of these tribals. Forest Post  helps them by adding value to  the products made by tribals  through women’s groups  trained in value addition.  

Her indigenous women’s  enterprises are scattered in six  villages in the Chalakudy and  Karuvannur river basins  

Manju empowering women to make forest products 

in central Kerala’s Western  Ghats. They produce beeswax  skincare, bamboo craft, and  value-added traditional foods.  The raw material comes from  seasonal harvests of Kerala’s  forests as well as other parts of  India. People in these regions  

know where to find such  resources and what time of the  year to find them.  

Manju hopes that as a  brand, Forest Post is able  to convey the essence of  this enterprise and more  and more conscious buyers  come to appreciate it. Her  biggest support comes  from her women’s group— they are the core energy.  Financially, it all started  with an annual grant  from Global Alliance for  Gender and Green Action  (GAGGA) through the  Keystone Foundation in  the Nilgiris. In 2021, they  received support from the  UNDP (United Nations  Development Programme)  to strengthen the market  links of these businesses,  enable expansion to new  

villages, and do their branding  and business registration.  Manju is extremely happy to  have done her bit in reviving  their livelihood in small steps  by giving them dignified  livelihoods and a sense of  pride and ownership.  

- By Jamuna Rangachari 

10 LifePositive | DECEMBER 2022 

Soaps  

For 

Cleaning  Mother  Earth 

Harsh Chandra, a native  

of Uttrakhand, came  

to Auroville to study  

textiles and handlooms as part  of an exchange programme in  1993 but, instead, found his  calling in making organic  soaps. It wasn’t something he  thought he would get into, but  it piqued his interest, and he  started experimenting with  different formulations, using  natural materials like herbs,  flowers, and cold-pressed oils.  His products are plastic-free  and made of biodegradable  material. 

Harsh’s biggest challenge was  finding alternatives to plastic  packaging. After various  experiments and changes in  formulation, he came up with  the banana paper and butter  paper packaging methods.  Now, his company is 100 per  cent plastic-free. 

Moments that are very  touching for Harsh are  when people appreciate his  natural method of making  cold-pressed soaps. It is a 30- 

day process, which entails a  lot of hard work. So he feels  acknowledged when people  take the time to appreciate his  work and tell him how he has  positively impacted their lives  

and made them eco-friendly. 

Although his handmade  products take a bit longer to  make, he has no qualms as  his mission has always been  to remain environmentally  friendly. With this in mind,  he makes soaps for different  companies in India that share  his vision of producing nature friendly products.  

It is said that the universe does  connect us to what inspires us  and often, one then becomes  an inspiration to others.  This certainly has happened  with Harsh as he has indeed  understood how to be of service  to the planet while building  his brand. Seeing the way he  is moving forward, I for one,  certainly feel we all will hear  more about him very soon and  incorporate his soap in our  lifestyle. After all, with this  step, we could play a minor  role in serving mother earth  too. 

Harsh has indeed understood  how to be of service to the  planet while building his  brand. Seeing the way he is  forging ahead, it looks like we  will share more about him very  soon, thereby playing a minor  role in serving Mother Earth  

too. Harsh Chandra: the joy of running a 100 percent plastic free company- By Jamuna Rangachari 

Mandala 11 

Visionary Care for  the Blind 

Based in Hoskote,  

Karnataka, the GEF  

Hospital serves as  

central base from where  

a team of specialists and  

ophthalmologists conduct  

a range of programmes  

to reach out to patients  

in need. Their outreach  

programme is designed  

to bring eye care to those  

who would normally have  

no access to high-end  

medical treatments.  

The Global Eye Foundation provides free eye care to the underpriveleged

I recently had the privilege of directing an underprivileged  

person towards quality eye care even though he could not  afford to pay for his cataract surgery. This was possible as  I knew of Global Eye Care Foundation, an organisation that  has been doing this yeoman service for years. 

Statistically, there are 12 million classified blind patients in  India. 80 per cent of these cases could have been entirely  prevented, had they been diagnosed and treated in time.  Unfortunately, most eye care clinics and specialists are  big-city-based. This leaves the largely uninformed rural  populations ignored, unscreened, and untreated, with  no access to quality eye care. Most often, they don’t even  know that their condition is correctible and treatable.  Consequently, their sight begins to weaken and blur, their  world gets hazy, and they continue to struggle to make ends  meet. The Global Eye Foundation (GEF) was founded in  1995 by Dr Sundar Ram Shetty and eight of his colleagues.  It is a non-profit organisation with a mission to provide all  underprivileged Indians access to free and quality eye care. 

Their teams work closely with the  National Programme of Control  of Blindness (NPCB) to scout  four districts of Karnataka—  Chikkaballapura, Kolar, Bangalore  Rural, and Tumkur—looking for  patients with cataract, glaucoma,  diabetic retinopathy, and refractive  errors at their frequent eye camps.  They also provide free lodging and  meals for every patient who arrives  at GEF. They have organised 51,174  outreach camps, screened 262,132  patients, and performed 105,401  sight-saving surgeries for free. 

The GEF has a plan for  implementing a three-tier eye care  programme, which will take eye care  to the doorstep of every poor in rural  and urban Karnataka. 

- By Jamuna Rangachari