Prayagraj: Once confined to domestic work, rural women in Sangam city are now earning a steady income by turning discarded polythene into useful products like laptop bags, mobile wallets, baskets, tabletops — a shift made possible through the State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM).Seema Devi of Nooruddinpur village in Prayagraj had struggled for nearly a decade to provide two meals a day for her family. Today, she earns Rs 8,000–10,000 a month by converting waste polythene into baskets, purses and other items. She uses the time left after household chores to craft these products, and her income now supports her children’s education and household expenses. Like Seema, around 40 other women in the village have joined the SRLM initiative and taken up similar work. Deputy commissioner (NRLM), Gulab Chandra, said over 40 women in Nooruddin village of Bahadur block have associated with the mission to make recycled-polythene products. A city-based firm supplies the raw material, following which the women turn the discarded polythene into laptop bags, mobile wallets, baskets, tabletops and other items using cloth, twine and basic tools at home. With each household running a small-scale unit, cottage industries have come up across the settlement, lighting the way for greater self-reliance among rural women.
