Why Cleanshield?
Hygiene is one the important parameters to judge the social conditions of a community, but not at the cost of polluting the environment. Punjab has a huge agricultural base, resulting to the excessive use of chemicals, adding to the ever increasing chemical pollution. Moreover, the magnitude of unemployment in Punjab continues to be a cause of serious concern. Most of the females and the aged members of the family are unemployed. So, Enactus IIT Ropar took up the project Cleanshield to ensure hygiene, financial support and environment safety by teaching the target community how to manufacture Bio-phenyl and searching for a viable market for their product.
About The People
On the outskirts of Ropar city, there is a village named 'Ghanauli'. In our exploration of ghanauli we met, "Arjinder" a taxi driver. His family includes 3 children, his wife and his handicapped mother. He is the only person in the family who is earning. He is barely managing the ends of his life with his income. He wants his children to be well educated and sends them to Ropar city for schooling but it is a costly affair. He has educational background of +2 but that was not enough to fetch him a good job.
We came across a teenager "Happy Singh" who spent most of his childhood working in a grocery shop. His father is a laborer. Later he closed the shop because he wanted to study but barely managing to do so. He wants to find an alternative which doesn't takes much of his time and provide him with enough money to sustain his studies.
We also met a laborer of the thermal power plant who has mere income, not even enough to properly feed his family. He was in dire search of alternative jobs or works.Even after working the whole day in tough environments, his situation is not improving.
These are the people behind Cleanshield. We have already produced over 500 litres of Cleanshield and changed the lives of such people.
Project Highlights
- High Quality: Tested and verified in the IIT Chemistry Laboratory.
- Bio-Degradable: All biodegradable ingredients used in the making of the Bio-phenyl which makes it environmental friendly.
- Cost Effective: The best quality and biodegradable Bio-phenyl is sold at very cheap rates, increasing the profit margin for the manufacturers.
- Perfumed: Special care is taken to ensure that the Bio-phenyl is given a pleasant fragrance.
Triple Bottom Line-Impact
Economical - Setting up of a sustainable economic model of Bio-phenyl manufacturing would ensure employment in rural areas. This would also increase the income of the females and aged villagers substantially and they will be able to contribute to the family income.
- Percentage Profit on Each Bottle Sold: 150%
- Total No. of Bottles Sold This Year: 236
- Total Profit This Year: ₹ 4,248
Social - Successful accomplishment of the project goals would ensure hygiene in rural areas, where people don't even know what phenyl is. It will empower unemployed village females and elders.
Environmental - Use of bio-degradable phenyl would decrease the chemical pollution level and generate a positive environmental impact.
Journey Ahead
We have to set up a permanent target community near Ropar and provide them with the required laboratory equipments. We will be teaching them the thorough process of manufacturing the phenyl, so that they can manufacture it without our supervision, which would in turn make the initiative much more sustainable. We will be searching for bigger markets for the Bio-phenyl, generating more income for the community.