The Brief

Every Diwali: it is tradition in India to clean your house thoroughly, ridding it of all old and unusable objects. And every year, a lot of this junk finds its way to Karmayog in the form of donations. But the reality is that not much of it comes to any use, even for the poor and needy. Karmayog approached us for a solution to this problem.

Creative Execution

We took the litter that otherwise had no use and created Diwali lamps from it. This not only solved Karmayog's problem of accumulated junk but also generated money for them that could actually be donated to the poor. Karmayog is an NGO that works towards sustainable solutions and an execution such as this one reflected their philosophy as well.

Describe the creative solution to the brief/objective.

During Diwali, people put up lamps outside their homes. These lamps are sold on the streets of Mumbai. We took the junk and transformed it into a collection of creatively - designed lamps or kandils. So whether it was a torn T-shirt, a single shoe, a kettle or a bag that had seen better days, every object was revamped into Diwali decor. We put up the litter lamps in a stall alongside these other stalls just before Diwali.

Results

As Karmayog is an NGO, there was no budget allocated for this project. Apart from the electrician's daily wages of Rs. 400/- per day, we did not incur any cost but in fact generated money for them with the sales of the lamps. We made about 2,500 lamps from litter and sold all of them, generating almost Rs. 4,00,000, which was distributed amongst 500 poor families.