Gulmeher: New Livelihoods for Ragpickers
Ghazipur in East Delhi has one of the oldest functional landfills in the city. Hundreds of families live near the dumpsite and earn an income through waste-picking. When we set up a 12 MW waste to energy power plant here, we started the Gulmeher livelihood initiative to help members of this community find alternate livelihoods.
34 ragpicker women have been trained to make high quality handicrafts, paper bags and chemical-free colours from discarded flowers of the Ghazipur wholesale flower market. An embroidery unit and a paper recycling unit that produces paper on commercial order have also been set up with women from the locality.
Gulmeher — literally meaning ‘the blessings of flowers’ — has transformed the lives of these women by giving them a safe space to work, and a new identity as artisans and stakeholders of the Gulmeher Producer Company.
