KENDRAPARA: Kamala Moharana of Kendrapara, who had garnered Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appreciation for creating best from waste, has sent a rakhi for him made from waste, on Monday. The PM had praised Kamala on February 26 in the 98th episode of Mann Ki Baat.
The 64-year-old Moharana resides in riverside village Khairput and runs an SHG Ama Dakhyata. Starting with a small group of women in 2016, she is now helping around 50 women to earn by converting garbage into beautiful materials.
She makes baskets, pen stand, mobile phone stand, flower-pots, hand-fans, wall-hanging and other items from waste materials since the last seven years. “My life changed the day the PM heaped praise on my work. Modiji is my elder brother so I prepared a rakhi from the waste materials like plastic, polythene, zari, wrappers of food, biscuits, milk packets and other materials and sent it to him by post on Monday,” said Kamala.
The waste items cause huge problems for the environment so I focused on recycling those into something creative, she said. The demand for rakhis made by our SHG has increased because of their beauty and price that ranges from `20 to `100, said secretary of the SHG, Kuntala Sahoo.