Cloth for Work

About the Project

It starts with a series of questions!!- When we talk of basic needs, we say food, cloth & shelter, then why in the list of development subjects which has more than 100 -150 issues; from domestic violence to global warming, the clothing is not listed as a subject? Why do we think of clothes during disasters only? Why a basic need of entire human kind is treated as disaster relief material? Why women’s universal need of a piece of cloth as sanitary pad is not an issue, forcing millions to use sand, ash, jute bags, husk, newspaper instead. Why do we treat Cloth as mere charitable object- to donate!!

GOONJ’s work has shown that under utilised cloth & other old material is a powerful & proven tool for social change, huge resource for rural development & a valuable asset for income generation in rural India.

Worldwide when we think of resources for any kind of development work, first thing which we think of is money. GOONJ works on turning old material as a resource for hundreds of rural development works as a part of its nationwide 'Cloth for work' initiative.

GOONJ understands the cause and effect connect between two big issues for the rural poor; a. their struggle for basics of life in the absence of resources and opportunities b. village India getting left behind in entire development happening in urban India.

1. GOONJ collects vast quantities of underutilized material lying in urban India (households, corporates, institutions, from across India) and uses it as a powerful resource to address both these critical issues simultaneously for rural India, without burdening either the giver or the receiver.

2. GOONJ matches material with specific needs of local village communities; actual distribution is tied in with community working on specific development gap areas (in its own area) identified by the community itself.

3. Gap areas are different at different places; communities have built bamboo bridges, made their agricultural fields more fertile, made kitchen gardens, dug up wells, repaired roads, cleaned up water bodies etc.

4. Common thread is material as motivation for nudging communities to take action against their own problems. This not only brings a sense of pride and dignity in receiving material but more importantly it brings a huge sense of ownership and empowerment for village communities.

5. GOONJ focuses on most far flung, backward and neglected areas; symbolized by people who still dig a pit in winters and make their children sleep in it to keep them warm or countless women who use sand, ash or nothing at all during menses, since they don’t even have enough cloth to cover their body.

6. As we reach clothes & other material to these people, we free up their meager resources for more urgent needs like food, health etc..

Project Action Plan

Project Action Plan

1Some critical elements of this work: 1. addressal of basic needs; only people who genuinely need material and clothes work under Cloth For work, since there is no monetary reward. It is addressing many basic needs like woolens for winters, school dress for children or sanitary napkin for women 2. reaching need based material; our village partner groups give us detailed specific inputs about what is needed by their communities, thus material is accepted, appreciated and used most effectively. 3. giving material with dignity and as reward for work; when people earn cloth and other material by their work, it doesn’t make them dependent on GOONJ. It gives them a bigger sense of satisfaction for having done something for their community. For the rural masses the idea that they themselves have a lot of wisdom and empowerment to deal with many of their own problems without waiting for any outside agency to come to their help, is the strongest point for the work. 4. Use of local resources, no monetary transaction; In all the work undertaken we use local resources like bamboos,local building material etc. and local wisdom and knowledge. There are no monetary transactions as people work on their own problems, they take complete ownership; there is no outside intervention or involvement. 5. enriching the isolated urban communities; It is providing a constructive channel to growing quantities of waste from urban households. Throughout the year when we ask people in the cities to give their discard for a good cause, we not only embed the idea of looking at one’s discard in a new light of how it can help someone but more importantly it helps develop in urban masses an attitude of continuous giving, born from an empathy for village India issues and challenges. This attitude ensures a continuous supply of material in the long term.

Some critical elements of this work: 1. addressal of basic needs; only people who genuinely need material and clothes work under Cloth For work, since there is no monetary reward. It is addressing many basic needs like woolens for winters, school dress for children or sanitary napkin for women 2. reaching need based material; our village partner groups give us detailed specific inputs about what is needed by their communities, thus material is accepted, appreciated and used most effectively. 3. giving material with dignity and as reward for work; when people earn cloth and other material by their work, it doesn’t make them dependent on GOONJ. It gives them a bigger sense of satisfaction for having done something for their community. For the rural masses the idea that they themselves have a lot of wisdom and empowerment to deal with many of their own problems without waiting for any outside agency to come to their help, is the strongest point for the work. 4. Use of local resources, no monetary transaction; In all the work undertaken we use local resources like bamboos,local building material etc. and local wisdom and knowledge. There are no monetary transactions as people work on their own problems, they take complete ownership; there is no outside intervention or involvement. 5. enriching the isolated urban communities; It is providing a constructive channel to growing quantities of waste from urban households. Throughout the year when we ask people in the cities to give their discard for a good cause, we not only embed the idea of looking at one’s discard in a new light of how it can help someone but more importantly it helps develop in urban masses an attitude of continuous giving, born from an empathy for village India issues and challenges. This attitude ensures a continuous supply of material in the long term.
Located in:,

Who will this help Rise

This initiative is unique in that it impacts everyone it touches upon; the giver, the receiver and all other stakeholders in the channel. Village communities are being vitalized as their standards of living are improving with material inputs. Other sectors touched by the development activities; like education, environment, infrastructure building, are also having their own multiplier effects.
Targeted communities; we are working in parts of 21 states of India with more than 250 organisations/activists/ashoka fellows as our grassroots Partner groups. Target communities are

• Geographically the most remote and far flung areas and disaster prone areas.
• The most neglected communities like tribals and backward communities like Moosahars in these states
• Children, women and disaster hit people
• Lower middle class and below that of urban slums
• Small village schools- as we also generate a good amount of school material

How will this help them Rise?

computers

Project Champion

Meenakshi

Meenakshi

Project Location

This Project Needs

Volunteers
100 to organise awareness cum collection campaigns in cities and to join in villages for implementation

Equipments
5 computers

Funding
₹5000000

Can you contribute any of the above?

Project Keywords

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