These Varanasi Women Are Turning Discarded Ganga Clothes into Eco-Friendly Bags

In the holy city of Varanasi, where the spiritual chants echo along the Ganga ghats, a quiet revolution is stitching lives back together — quite literally. Discarded clothes once left behind by devotees at the sacred riverside are now being turned into eco-friendly cloth bags. Thanks to a unique initiative launched by IAS officer Akshat Verma in collaboration with the Hope Welfare Foundation, more than 1 lakh sustainable bags have already made their way into the hands of locals and shopkeepers.

This community-driven project, launched in December 2023, does much more than reduce textile waste. Over 50 local women, mostly from rural backgrounds, have been employed under the “Green Army” initiative. These women not only recycle and repurpose waste materials but also raise awareness around sustainability. The Hope Welfare Foundation, which has trained over 22,000 women across India, was even recognised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Varanasi visit, where he applauded their grassroots work in women’s empowerment and environmental preservation.

How a Simple Idea Sparked a Four-Pronged Impact in Banaras

We spoke with Ravi Mishra, one of the founding members of the Hope Welfare Foundation, who took us through their inspiring journey. “It all started on my birthday, 3rd January 2013,” said Ravi, smiling. “We were just four of us—Divyanshu Upadhyay, Shyama Kant Suman, Sandip Gupta, and I. We wanted to do something meaningful, something that truly helps people.” From that thought, Hope Welfare was born.

Their work had been going strong for a decade, empowering women in various states by providing them with education, life skills, and employment. They also enhance their education model, offering more digital literacy and rights-awareness programmes to rural women. Training in self-defence techniques like judo and karate has already begun in some pockets. But things truly escalated when IAS Akshat Verma, then posted in Varanasi as the Municipal Commissioner, approached them with a novel idea. “He said, ‘Why not make bags from these clothes lying at the ghats?’” recalled Ravi. “We were stunned. It was simple, but brilliant.”

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The clothes left behind at the Ganga ghats often rot in open spaces, posing not just a cleanliness issue but also endangering local fauna. The NGO’s volunteers began collecting these clothes daily. “We have a hygiene protocol,” explained Ravi. “Each piece is washed, sanitised, and only then handed over to our Green Army.” The Green Army is made up of women, many of whom had never stepped outside their homes. Once trained in stitching and tailoring, they are given machines, materials, and green sarees that signify their environmental mission. With these tools, they started crafting beautiful and reusable cloth bags.

“These women aren’t just workers,” Ravi insisted. “They’re changemakers.” He shared stories of how these women have taken strong stances in their villages—educating others, standing up to domestic violence, and even confronting substance abuse issues. “When they went door to door telling people not to drink or waste water, they were threatened,” Ravi said. “But we used saam, daam, dand, bhed – whatever it took. And we didn’t back down.” The bags aren’t sold commercially. Instead, many are given away free to reduce plastic use. Others are sold to the municipality or distributed in slum areas where they double as reusable clothing.

Alongside, the Green Armies have cleaned ponds, restored water channels, and even begun celebrating the birth of girl children in villages. “We’re not just making bags,” said Ravi, “We’re building a movement.” When asked what he believes is the most important part of empowering rural women, he answered thoughtfully, “We are politically independent, but mentally still stuck. Change will come when a woman believes she deserves to be respected and heard.”

A Future Sewn with Hope and Green Threads

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Looking ahead, the team at Hope Welfare Foundation is preparing to stitch even more change into Banaras and beyond. Plans are in motion to scale up the project and bring in more remote villages, especially in water-scarce and underdeveloped areas. “We’re eyeing the Bundelkhand region next,” Ravi shared. “Water crisis is real there. Our women have the courage to step in.”

And it doesn’t stop there. “We want to normalise celebrating the birth of girls in every household,” Ravi said. “Just like boys. That’s the culture shift we’re trying to build.” The idea is as much about recycling textiles as it is about recycling mindsets. Every cloth bag made is not just an environmental win—it’s also a statement. A symbol of change sewn by hands that were once idle, now shaping a greener, cleaner, and more equal future for India. 

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