Theatre to empower women and a superhero who helps those in distress—our top social stories of the week

Kattaikkuttu Sangam, started in 1990 by actor, director and playwright Perungattur P Rajagopal, together with theatre scholar Hanne M de Bruin and 15 actors and musicians, is a non-profit association of professional theatre performers. 

Kattaikkuttu is an ancient form of rural dance-theatre performed in Tamil Nadu, traditionally by men. Breaking the stereotype, Kattaikkuttu Sangam is the first and only institution in the country to train women in the art form. 

From 2002 to 2020, the institution offered rural children access to Kattaikkuttu training in combination with full-fledged education and comprehensive care under its flagship programme–the Kattaikkuttu Gurukulam.

Read more about it here.

Milling a circular economy

Bengaluru-based Saving Grains upcycles beer waste called ‘spent grain’ into flour, which is used to make products like crackers, cookies, bread, rotis, and ladoos. Started by Elizabeth Yorke in 2021, the startup collects this byproduct from local breweries and takes it to a facility, where it is dried and processed into products. 

Saving Grains has collaborated with Kutumba Community Centre in Bengaluru, where the startup has set up a micro-unit that makes flour from spent grain. It has also partnered with four breweries in Bengaluru, including Geist Brewery Co. 

It functions on a back-to-brewery model, wherein after procuring the grains, the startup makes flour and other products and sells them back to the brewery. In the B2B space, the company also caters to restaurants, food stores, and offices.

Bengaluru ‘superhero’ helps people in distress

When Dushyant Dubey was 16 years old and could not convince people to help a man who was dying of an overdose of medicines on a live stream, his love changed. 

Dubey, who was earlier driven by entrepreneurship and focused on making money, soon plunged into social service. He created a St Broseph account on Reddit in 2013 and began organising community events and meetups. Today, he has built a community of 5,300 volunteers in Bengaluru. 

The St Joseph’s Foundation helps people in distress. On average, Dubey gets around 100 cases a day, including civic issues, crimes, scams, and even how to get rid of a gecko at home. 

The foundation also runs safe spaces known as St. Broseph Safehouses, which are fully furnished apartments offering free accommodation and security to victims of crime who are physically at risk.

Upcycling coconut by-products

Global Green Coir, started by Anees Ahmed in Chennai in 2012, upcycles coco peat from coconut husk to make products such as pots, bricks, blocks, and grow bags, which are also exported internationally. 

The startup collects coconut husks from coconut merchants and fibre extraction units. The material is then processed in-house through its fibre extraction units.

While some of the extracted fibre is sold through B2B channels to rope and mattress makers, the rest is used to make a range of gardening products for personal use. Ahmed says the use of coco peat in horticulture activities is increasing and believes more people will soon realise the potential of the material.

In other positive news …

Hard work pays off

Twenty-six-year-old Pragya, the daughter of a Supreme Court cook, secured a US scholarship to study masters in law. This news brought in praises from the Chief Justice of India, Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, who also felicitated her with a book signed by all the Supreme Court judges. 

“I am a hard-core believer in hard work. There is no shortcut to success. If one slogs and puts his heart and soul into something, nothing can stop that person from achieving their goal,” the CJI said after meeting Pragya, according to a report in The New Indian Express. 

“It (hard work) opens up several avenues and helps get the needed resources quickly. No matter what, if a student makes an effort, they will never fail to get the resources,” he added.