Congratulations, Poonam Bir Kasturi! Fondly called ‘Compostwali’, Poonam is the winner of India’s 2015 Social Entrepreneurs of the Year, for her initiative Daily Dump – Compost at Home.
Very happy and proud to see a friend being recognised for her efforts to give us a clean city…Like a lot of our other Indian cities, Bangalore has had a desperate need for something like this for a long time. At a time when we have been grappling with the garbage crisis for quite some time, Poonam has been nothing short of a messiah for our bustling metro. It is a shock to see how people fail to see their roles in tackling this issue, having nothing to do about it other than add to the muck and then moan about things not changing! Well, thanks to Poonam, now, we have a sizeable portion of our population who have started not just thinking about it but mobilizing action too!
A couple of years back, we were fortunate to have Poonam come and show the residents of our apartment complex how to put our massive daily waste to use by composting in-house and then, use the organic waste to grow fruits and vegetables in our backyard. Ever since, there has been a stringent system of waste segregation and composting in place that we have followed through, which has markedly reduced the amount of garbage that now goes out of the complex. For that I can only say, glad, you showed us the way to a cleaner, more organic way of life!
‘Daily Dump’ is an endeavour that came about as a result of experimenting with how design can play out in ways so far unexplored. An Industrial Designer with years of experience behind her, Poonam has a winning mantra – “Design used well, can help you see whole systems”.
If you wish to know more about her work, please do visit the Daily Dump website at http://www.dailydump.org/ to check out her remarkable journey!