Christabelle Noronha

Deep inside Munnar, home to Tata Tea's operations, Christabelle Noronha comes across Srishti, a community welfare centre that really cares for the flora and fauna and helps the physically and mentally challenged to lead normal lives

Nestled in the mountains, with the Annamalai range rising on all sides, Munnar is made prettier with the many tea gardens dotting the landscape.

Blessed with a fascinating variety of plants, birds and animals, Munnar is home to endangered species like the Nilgiri tahrs and the rare kurinji plants, which bloom once in every 12 years.

Tata Tea has one of its largest tea gardens and processing operations in this tranquil town. The company is a major employer in this region and lays great emphasis on protecting the environment and maintaining the ecological balance of the area. The company’s welfare centre, Srishti, is also located here.

“Our objective is to create a corpus, so that any fluctuation in the financial performance of Tata Tea will not disrupt welfare activities,” says Ratna Krishnakumar, who is closely involved with the centre. She, along with a committed team, monitor a large number of its projects.

Proceedings from the sale of items made at Srishti go back into the centre's corpus. “We want to develop the abilities of handicapped youth and make them self- dependent,” says Ms Krishnakumar.

Development Activities in Rehabilitation (DARE), one of the centre’s welfare activities, was started by Tata Tea on November 1, 1991, to help children who had learning disabilities. The children are provided with special education and taught a trade. The company also provides them with uniforms, midday meals and free transportation. The initial group of 29 students participating in the programme has now expanded to 82.

Awareness programmes and counselling for parents are an important aspect of the DARE activity.

As part of the rehabilitation programme, a strawberry preserve-making unit is maintained by the centre where the children are not only involved in the collection, cleaning and making of strawberry preserve but are also encouraged to grow strawberries, which are then bought by the centre.

This becomes an additional source of income for the children. The preserve consists of farm fresh strawberries preserved in sugar and lime juice; no artificial preservatives or colouring agents are used. During the first year, the centre made 900 bottles of preserve; this year, the number has increased to 1.35 lakh bottles.

The preserve, priced at Rs 67 per bottle, is available at all Taj and Patisserie shops and Westside department stores. In Bangalore, the preserve can also be bought from Nilgiris and Foodworld outlets. It is also locally available in Munnar. All proceeds from the sale of the preserve go towards the rehabilitation of project DARE's industrious children.

Making greeting cards is yet another activity DARE uses to help these children learn and earn at the same time. Students let their imagination fly in paint and the results are printed as greeting cards for different occasions. Annually, about 1 lakh cards, priced at Rs 7 each, are printed and sold through various outlets. (Click here to see more greeting cards.)

At the Vocational Training Centre (VTC), courses in blacksmithy, carpentry, tailoring and knitting are conducted. The students, who attend these one-year certificate courses, are not necessarily handicapped.

Athulya, a paper-making project, is also an important initiative at VTC. Handmade and scented paper from recycled organic waste is made and sold in the form of gift wrappers and letter-writing and decorative paper. Athulya recently got an export order from Japan for organic tea waste paper and from the UK for scented paper. Last year, over Rs 1 lakh worth of handmade paper was sold.

In 1994, Aranya, a natural dye project, was launched. “Nature, in all her bountiful diversity, has been our constant source of inspiration,” says Ms Krishnakumar. The raw materials used for the project are derived solely from abundant natural resources -- leaves, roots, barks, seeds and sawdust.

Munnar also offers an inexhaustible supply of natural resources like eucalyptus and mulberry leaves, Nilgiri kozha, lemon grass and pine cones. Aranya also makes use of several other raw materials like arjun, goran, pomegranate, catechu, jackfruit, henna and indigo in the manufacture of natural dyes. Tea wastes are available in plenty from the Tata Tea gardens. “A judicious blend of these raw materials results in an end-product that is truly outstanding,” says Ms Krishnakumar.

The dye is extracted under the supervision of experts to ensure rich natural hues. The yarn and yardage are then de-gummed and treated with mordants for colour-fastness. The dyed yarn is then washed in pure water from the springs to remove any excess colour.

Ms Krishnakumar says the Aranya project is today a full-fledged operation where dyeing is done on cotton, silk and woollen fabrics. Chiffon, georgette and silk scarves are handcrafted in batik, tie-and-dye and other intricate patterns. The colours were recently tested by the South Indian Textile Research Association and were given a grading of IV out of V, which is internationally a good rating.

“It’s a satisfying and fulfilling experience — working with the physically and mentally challenged to give them a new lease of life, help them become independent and enable them to lead normal lives,” she says.

For further information contact:
Ratna Krishna Kumar
Tel: 91-022-2837070
Email: ratnakk2001@yahoo.com

Uploaded in November 2001