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imagine yourself sitting on the banks of
the Ganges River and listening to these
chants
all you can see is a mesmerizing sight
of hundreds of lamps lit up and pundits
offering prayers to the most sacred
River in the Hindu mythology people pray
their hearts out with a belief that ma
Ganga would listen to all the grieves
and sorrows a strong bond of faith
exists much beyond the understanding of
scientific logic and reasoning people
play their hearts out with the belief
and offered loads and loads of flaws
into the Ganga as the sentiments the
2,500 kilometer long river has touched
the lives of innumerable people in
uncountable ways has also been
considered as a theatre which means the
crossing pointed now despite of being
such an indispensable part of our daily
lives
what is disheartening is to see that
people not only discharged the waste but
also polluting the rivers in the name of
religious offerings devotees through
tons of flaws and other illness items
into these rivers now this religious
discharge might sound like a very tiny
speck as compared to the hundreds and
hundreds of tons of industrial waste
that goes into it and I’m sure everyone
sitting here might be thinking the
cushion on your septum
some natural hair but as a matter of
fact it contains certain elements of
pesticides that harm the water body and
causes death to the fish species and
even threatened the humans the religious
discharge might sound like a tiny speck
but according to the study conducted by
the UN it amounts to 80 lakh metric tons
of flour waste that goes into these
rivers annually and this amounts to a
whooping 16% of the total population
caused in the rivers sadly today Ganges
is the second most polluted river in the
world and with the enormous pollution
levels diseases like cholera diarrhea
and hepatitis still continue to be the
leading cause of child mortality death
in India
now I’m sure everyone as Omkar said has
had a zeal to make a change in that
sphere please raise your hands how many
of you have everyone right similarly I
also had that zeal so when I returned
India after completing my master’s I
joined my family business it’s a
tradition in most of the Indian families
where an elderly member visits a place
of worship going to my similarly my
father used to visit a temple situated
on the banks of the Ganges for the last
30 years it was one of the oldest temple
in Kanpur going to his bad health one
fine day I asked him to allow me to
continue that tradition and he did not
deny me when I started visiting the
temple all I could see its innumerable
people offering various forms of poojas
ranging from small to big and the pooja
was so big that the flash that they
offered were worth lakhs and lakhs of
rupees now these flowers go and pile up
has even wandered here this is one of
the site this is just a part of it what
we do but these flowers are piled up
outside the temple and it’s not just the
flowers it’s mixed with plastic bags
glass bottles buttons broken statues of
gods and goddesses and many other things
so upon days of introspection or rather
worry a very pertinent thought struck my
mind how people from offering flowers to
the gods and goddesses see offer Claus
has been a religious ritual in India and
we are doing our best to preserve it and
increasing it day by day people think of
the society and the environment and the
repercussions it causes so I have been
discussing this problem with my friend
come cook co-founder and we came to the
conclusion that we cannot stop it
offering flowers but we can store
or we can on the repercussions to the
society and the way we disposed the
flies this is how the seed of helpers
universe own helpers who established
with us basic idea of making religion
sustainable it is now a self-sustaining
social enterprise that preserves the
grandest from becoming a religious sewer
by flower by flower cycling the waste
from these places of worship and
converting them into lifestyle products
with the help of rural women and manual
scavengers yes manual scavengers now
before moving ahead I would like to show
a very small video depicting the concept
behind helpers green
I wanna focus on a simple summary
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Yokohama never won cable to a KU
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[Applause]
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so this is a part of it what we do
second objective the manual scavenger
families now these women these rural
women are now a part of I and enterprise
this community is sort disregarded that
they are not allowed to enter people’s
homes and the children are not allowed
to study in government schools we wanted
to undo this notion and wanted to build
our enterprise with them and uplifting
them in the process as of now we have
128 rural women who work for us for four
hours a day and people and the husbands
now treat them with respect and dignity
which used to beat them earlier even the
children earn by making these products a
major part of it goes into the
elementary and Lukas inning so that they
can undo their life and the lives to
come ahead in the future generations now
coming apart from the social causes it
would be very unfair for me if I did not
talk about my personal motive and
starting this initiative now how many of
you are from a business class family
most of it so very common notion parents
want us to follow their footsteps right
yes similarly was in my my kids when I
left my country for my masters I was
made very clear that family with this
was the only option for me and nothing
else I returned to Kanpur on 18th of
September 2012 and on 19 I was at my
dad’s office trying to learn my
inheritance
this really infuriated me and I’m sure
all the buttons and Marvel’s would agree
that he come but I am very posh
technically and I look and I cannot do
anything else because half of my parents
they push ok Calcutta there they’ll have
just one answer my office that’s all so
I tried to convince my parents a lot but
it is rightly said that if you can
convince your parents you can conquer
similarly when I asked my parents when I
had to start the sake initiative the
first reaction was camping on Lago
bucket is a fall to hand or start up
some Picasso their first reaction and
the best part was my co-founders
mother’s response
optim que su o ki party software okay
apnea men seeking jobs hole okay by the
way he was an automation engineer in
semantic cooperation he left that job
our parents are really hesitant in
telling anyone what we used to do it was
after in august 2015 when we first
pitched this idea in IIT Kanpur and we
won the first prize then our pins
started taking her seriously because IIT
never approve kar di toluca successful
whole ziege and this has and this is a
notion in many of the families since
then our confidence grew we kept
pitching winning and their conference
grew day by day so did ours we broke
past the simple basic business class
notion that small initiatives like these
exists and can prove wonders in the
ecosystem I believe that the young eager
minds sitting here today have
innumerable ideas which can change the
way we look at the world I believe we
can make our ideas possible if we have
the power in our dreams and our selves
it would be very I mean if we can make
the world sing along that ctrl + Z is
definitely the option for us if we have
the hope the conference and the grid to
make it we all remember us a small
nursery rhyme we shall overcome
whoever remembers it but one says he
hires RI we shall overcome right but as
he grew up the societal pressures creep
kept creeping in and we were taught to
imitate other success the best part is
sharmaji Krakatoa thump única Theo
irrespective of what my zeal to do is I
I believe if we have the car if we have
a positive feeling in ourselves we can
make changes and we can create something
new something so unique that would make
people ask how would you make it
possible at this point of time we have
become the Xerox copy of each other
trying to imitate success if success was
so easy then everybody in the world
would have been successful and success
would having a constant phenomenon if
the Wright brothers did think beyond we
won’t have had aeroplanes in the 19th
century be the Wright brothers of your
life create your own wings and in the
process just remember one thing yes you can yes you can thank you