Women Tailoring Cooperative Societies, functioning under the Social Welfare Department, is pitching in to create a plastic-free environment.
There are a total of 94 Women Tailoring Co-operative Societies across the State with over 83,000 members.
In Chennai alone, there are 14 units and they function as one unit in Adyar.
With the State gearing up to implement a ban on plastics from next year, the societies have sent proposals to various government departments to purchase cloth bags made by them.
At present, these societies stitch school uniforms for the noon meal scheme beneficiaries across the State.
“From April to November the members have to stitch four sets of uniforms for the students. For stitching 500 pieces a month, they earn around ₹10,000,” said an official of the department.
After November, they are jobless till they get their next orders in April.
“So we decided to help the women get some extra money by making them stitch cloth bags. We have planned to sell a two kg bag for ₹10 and a 10 kg bag for ₹20. Each bag will fetch the member around ₹5,” the official said.
For prasadam distribution
The Social Welfare Department has written to departments including agriculture, co-operative societies, town panchayat, rural development, Chennai Corporation and forest department to purchase these bags.
“We are also planning to approach the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments department. They can use it for distributing prasadam,” a senior official explained. The respective department has to get sponsors to make the bags. “We will print the logo of the sponsors on the bag. The tailoring society in Udhagamandalam has already started making the bags and selling it to the public. We are also trying to get orders from private establishments,” the official added.