On a green revolution

18-year-old Vedant Kadam's project on vermicompost helped open up a new vista of a viable source of income for the women in his colony

In January 2011,then a Class 11 student,Vedant Kadam had his first brush with doing something for the community when he attended a vermicomposting course in his college. Having a keen interest in Agriculture-related practices,he decided to take the knowledge from the course a step further. First he tried it out in his house and then slowly expanded it to the community around. The efforts resulted in a a project presentation in Bangalore,where he won first prize for his college for the real life implementation of the same.

Kadam,who is currently studying in first year in the BSc Biotechnology course at the Modern College of Arts,Science and Commerce in Shivajinagar,says,I want to improve the living conditions here. Most of the families here including mine,live on very limited income. Helping empower the women,will add to the income source and better their lives too.

Helping Kadam in his endeavor was the college principal Dr R Zunjarrao,who spoke to the women in his block about the project. The work began in August,wherein out of 80 houses,20 women signed up for the project. Special barrels were provided by the college. The women were also given bins to segregate the dry and the wet garbage. With a collection of over eight kg of garbage daily,the vermicompost was ready four months later.

Kadam,alongwith two of his seniors,gave a detailed presentation at the event in Bangalore and also showcased a poster elaborating the work done over the previous four months. We never expected to win anything but when we did it was a proud feeling, he admits.

The college in return decided to teach the women who had participated in the project a course on creating cosmetics from herbal raw materials,free of cost. The pilot project saw 10 women,most of them illiterates,attend the course. Chayaa Kadam,one of the residents,who attended the course says,

For his mother Rajani,one of the biggest moments of her life was when she attended the course herself. My son taught me at the class. It was his persistence that saw the women in our building find an alternate source of income, she adds.

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Bangalore