Thiruvananthapuram: The city’s new-found love for paper bags and cloth bags, thanks to the plastic-ban introduced by the corporation, is turning out to be a blessing for a group of visually challenged people.The members of Welfare Association for Visually Challenged - a rehabilitation-cum-training centre based in Vattiyoorkkavu is suddenly seeing a splurge in demand for handmade eco-friendly paper bags.Depending on the size, this charitable society provides paper bags made of old newspapers priced at Rs 6 and Rs 8 and brown paper bags at Rs 12 to 15. Their range of products also includes envelopes, medicine covers, X-ray covers etc.C I Varghese, founder and general secretary of the association, said that they had been making paper bags for the past 10 years. “After my retirement, I wanted to do something for the blind people across the state. The organisation was formed with an aim to rehabilitate the blind people by giving training them in making of paper bags, lotions, soaps, candles, agarbathies, and cloth bags. But, our journey hasn’t been smooth as the expense was always greater than the income generated,” said Varghese.The situation, however, changed for better after the plastic ban . “We are making x-ray covers and medicine covers to some of the hospitals in the city now. Krishipura – an organic initiative in Technopark - is also promoting our product,” said Varghese.The association currently employs 11 people and each of the workers makes around 15 to 20 paper bags a day. An average of 20 minutes is required to make a paper bag.“We use two layers of newspapers with cardboard cuttings at the bottom. Depending on the order we print the name of the company also. There are bags in 1kg, 2kg and 5kg categories. Now, the bags are finding more takers in the city as some techies have taken initiatives to take our products into markets including some shops inside Chalai market, Enchaykkal, etc.” said Jaya who works with the association.Sarath Krishna, who is a techie associating with the team, said the work of the association was a motivation to many people. “Since the majority of the employees are blind, they need someone’s help to take their products to market in new outlook with logos. That is where we come in,” he said.

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