Temple flowers blossom in eco-friendly gulaal pouches

Flowers offered to deities in temples and later dumped into rivers are finding their way into colour sold across 13 cities to celebrate an eco-friendly Holi.

Among the natural colors city-based social enterprise eCoexist offers during Holi are the pink and red gulaal made from flowers that have been collected from temples of Delhi as part of a campaign to free the Yamuna of organic waste.

"Mentally-challenged youth trained by Delhi-based Society for Child Development, convert these flowers into pink and red colour. This colour is brought to Pune at Maher, a home for destitute women. Here, the women are trained to package the colours and earn from it," said Manisha Gutman, founder, eCoexist.

Around 15 women from Maher have packaged 1,500 kg of colour.

For the past eight years eCoexist has been promoting use of natural colour during Holi.

Gutman said about 90 people, working with 18 centres of the Society for Child Development across Delhi, were involved in the project.

On an average, 500 kg flowers were collected a day by each centre. Explaining the process, she said the flowers from temples are collected, cut and dried through the year.

While the process of converting flowers into colours takes place from November to mid-January, the rest of January and February are for packaging and delivery. Altogether, 9,000 kg of color has been made, apart from 2,000 kg vermi-compost as a byproduct.

While the pink and red gulaal are made by the Society for Child Development, other colors are made by Niramaya Mahila Bachat Ghat, Pune. The colors are sold under the brand, Rang Dulaar. "The colors, made of turmeric and other herbal ingredients, are not only lab-tested and safe for use by children but also provide income to women self help groups and mentally-challenged young adults," said Gutman.

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