He quit engineering at 46 to weave handloom from weeds: Meet Gaurav Anand, whose water hyacinth sarees now empower 450 women in Jharkhand and West Bengal

Water hyacinth is a freshwater weed known for its massive growth system that blocks sunlight and chokes the aquatic ecosystem. For years, the flower has been known as the 'terror of Bengal', but today, an engineer uses them to make fabrics that turn into beautiful sarees.These flowers grow in still pond water, which is a common presence in most household backyards. Aquatic life can only survive when dissolved oxygen in water is at least five mg per litre, but it decreases to one mg per litre due to the presence of this system.In India, water hyacinths have been used to make mats, paper and other handicrafts. Gaurav Anand, a 46-year-old Jamshedpur resident found a way to convert the nuisance system into fusion sarees by extracting fibre from the plant.Today, Anand uses 25kg of water hyacinth to make one fusion saree. He began the journey in February 2022, and has been able to make 50 such sarees with the aim of making many more.Anand, is a former environmental engineer who identified this big abnormality during river cleaning drives while working with TATA Steel. It is present in almost all the rivers except flowing rivers like the Ganga, Godavari and Krishna.It was in 2018, when he participated in a one-month -long Namami Gange mission to clean the River Ganga. “After the mission, all team members went back to their respective work but for me, this was a life-changing expedition. I started dedicating every Sunday towards cleaning rivers,” he recalled.In 2022, he quit his 16-year-long corporate career and founded Swacchata Pukare Foundation to dedicate himself to the cause full-time.Before beginning the venture, Anand had begun making lampshades, paper, notebooks and mats from water hyacinths. It was while working on these products that he found out that the pulp of these plants contains cellulose, which can be converted into a yarn, akin to jute. Someone he knew, connected him to weavers who implemented the idea and thus, he began fusing the material with cotton sarees.The entire process takes weeks. First, the stems of the plant are collected and dried in the sun for a week. They use the soft cover of the stem to use paper while using the pulp to make fibre. This fibre is used to make yarn, which is then coloured.Next, weavers weave the saree on a handloom with the entire process taking three to four days to make one saree. Since the work is labour-intensive, Anand has kept the ratio of 25:75 for water hyacinth and cotton. "Currently, we have priced our saree at Rs 2,000–3,500 so that it is affordable for middle-income groups as well. We have been able to sustain the business so far,” he added.Anand's initiative is not only helping aquatic ecosystems and dressing up women beautifully, but it is also empowering women in local villages. With his work, Anand shared that he has employed about 10 weaver families from Santipur village of West Bengal to improve their economic status. He shared that almost every household in the village made sarees using handlooms however, they were switching jobs due to a lack of enough income. “Our objective is not to earn from saree making. We just want to boost the livelihood of the weavers, so they do not leave the work and remain motivated,” he said.Moreover, he also supports 450 rural women through the initiative who are employed to collect the flowers from the water bodies and process them before sending them to the weavers. “Earlier, I used to work in a tobacco factory. I would often suffer from skin diseases and would spend a large amount on the treatment. Today, I am able to work in safe conditions and earn up to Rs 5,000 per month by working for three to four hours a day,” said Rama Ray, a 47-year-old widow working for Anand."If I had retired doing the corporate job, I would have done nothing for my country. Earlier, when I would get a salary, I was able to support only my family. Today, I am able to support so many families with this work. It is a ‘wow’ moment for me," said Anand.