How A Dabbawala, A Charitable Organisation And A Teenager Are Giving Conscience To Old Clothes

In a fast-paced world of rapidly evolving trends, recycling is often not the first choice when wardrobes are being cleared out. And at other times, sentiments kick in. People's emotional attachment to their old clothes also makes it difficult to part with them till they are literally falling apart. But, there are people who are trying to stop our old clothes from ending up in landfills, polluting our land and water, and air.

Meet Vilas Mahadu Shinde. 45-year-old Vilas who lives in a chawl in Versova is a dabbawala. He delivers hot meals from people's homes to their offices, schools, colleges, and institutions. Vilas realises the gap between the two worlds in the city where he lives and works in. One world has its cupboards full of colourful clothes, while the other world does not have a cupboard to fill.

Vilas has been delivering lunchboxes for 23 years now. But he doesn't only collect and deliver hot meals. There is another valuable service that he is providing not just to his clients but to the environment - repurposing old clothes.

Vilas has been collecting clothes while delivering lunchboxes for six years now. The collected clothes are not really old. It is mostly the clothes people have worn and outgrown.

Vilas says that he spends most of his time doing this - collecting and distributing clothes. He adds, "I don't have to spend any money. I feel very good doing this. The world we live in is full of disparities. On the one hand, people wear the best clothes, and on the other people have nothing to do with clothes."

Started in 2007 after founder Rahul Verma's son fell ill, the Uday Foundation has served underprivileged people from various parts of India who have settled in Delhi with no food to eat, no shelter for protection, and no decent clothes to wear.

Uday Foundation, a Delhi-based charitable organisation, accepts all types of summer and winter clothing for children and adults. Once the clothes have been collected, the Uday Foundation team then sorts them according to size and gender. The Foundation asks for 'gently used' clothes so that the dignity of those receiving them is kept intact.

The van is then loaded with boxes of clothes and makes its way to places of distribution. The clothes are distributed amongst children and adults in hospitals, children living near railway tracks or under flyovers, children of daily wagers at construction sites and underprivileged children in government hospitals.

In addition to clothes, the Uday Foundation also asks for old newspapers which they then sell to paper manufacturers. The money is used for food donation drives for the poor, waiting outside hospitals. The Foundation also offers receipt to the donors.

Jeans, a piece of clothing we all have in our wardrobes. The denim industry has been an integral part of the fashion world for decades, providing us with durable and stylish jeans, jackets, skirts, dresses and even clothing for babies. However, the production of denim has a significant environmental impact.

"Each pair of jeans takes about 10 thousand liters of water to make. That was really shocking. I remember that day looking into my closet and seeing about five pairs of jeans. that is 50 thousand liters of water in my own closet", recalls Nirvaan Somany, founder of Project Jeans.

Started in 2019, Project Jeans is turning discarded jeans into sleeping bags. With the help of a few corporates and individuals, Nirvaan has been able to collect thousands of pairs of jeans and has so far distributed around 900 beds among homeless people.