Amita has worked extensively in Sustainable Development and Corporate Social Responsibility since the past 14 years. An IT Engineer by basic education, she went on to do her Masters at Purdue University, USA with a focus on Sustainability. She worked with CSR teams of multinational corporations, consultancies, non-profits, and community-based organizations in the United States and India and eventually founded Aarohana EcoSocial Developments with the rich experience she has gathered. After leading Aarohana for 7 years, she went on to found reCharkha. With her EcoSocial vision and boundless energy, Amita designs our EcoSocial projects, heads our communication and awareness generation efforts, and looks after overall management of reCharkha and My EcoSocial Planet. Amita’s long-standing dream is to develop a sustainable village and live in it herself, which she wishes to fulfill through reCharkha and My EcoSocial Planet.

Abhishek comes with 8 years experience in Manufacturing operations. He holds a Masters Degree in Industrial Engineering, specializing in Lean Operations Management, from Detroit, USA. He has worked in a variety of industries from foundry, forging and automobile. His strong experience in machining will help us enhance our traditional equipment and techniques of upcycling. In addition, he brings in new methods and systems to streamline our production processes. Abhishek has also worked in the field of Nutrition and Fitness, hence brings in a different expertise required for our rural community initiatives, which is a part of our non-profit entity "My EcoSocial Planet". We are thrilled to have him onboard and look forward towards our journey ahead.

Sayli started working in her 20’s and used to travel to far for her work. She did not have had any specific goal towards the sustainability back then but wasn’t happy with the way people used to throw the garbage/ rubbish out from train window or on the road. She used to tell them not to throw the garbage but to keep in their bags, hardly people would listen. She worked almost for 8 years but was never really satisfied with the work she did. Everyday there were system upgrades, process changes and many things which dint make any difference at the end and no value add to anyone. Hence she decided to quit her job in 2019 and with the desire of doing something of her own but again she did not want to do business just to earn money or have lavish lifestyle but to be able help the nature and people around her to live a sustainable life style. And here she is one of us now, working towards betterment of planet and people!!

Naresh is an Army Veteran and has recently joined reCharkha. He has served extensively for 26 years in Army’s Logistic Department. During his military career, he was close to nature in the mountainous terrain of Sikkim; Kashmir and he strongly believes that if we protect nature, nature will protect us. He is highly motivated by the steps undertaken by reCharkha towards conserving the environment and sustainable developments. Therefore he wants to be a part of the journey and choose reCharkha as his second career. At reCharkha he manages the day to day functions related to operations, administration and finance.

Vani started her association with us as a Customer, then a Volunteer at all our Mumbai events, and now, is associated with us Fulltime! Vani has graduated from NIFT Chennai as a Fashion Designer, long long ago, and then worked for over 15 years in various organisations as well as had her own entrepreneurial stint! At reCharkha, Vani is a part of our Business Development activities in Mumbai, managing the Mumbai store, sourcing fabrics and accessories. We are so glad that Vani is part of our team, as her passion plus experience adds great value to reCharkha's EcoSocial Tribe!

Ashwini our Business Development Manager has been a huge support and strength for reCharkha. A ’97 batch- Post Graduate in Computer Science, she worked extensively in the field in both India and the U.S. before moving back to India and starting her own business for primary and pre-primary school products. She also, being a strong advocate for sustainable living and keeping the environment clean, started teaching the technique of waste segregation through awareness sessions and cleaning drives to the residents of the apartment complexes around her. “Today after 5 years, I see all my neighbors segregating waste at source and this gives me contentment” says Ashwini. Realizing that working towards a healthier environment is her true passion, she joined reCharkha. In the coming months, as we plan to expand our tribe, she will set base in Netherlands as our head representative in Europe.

Pournima used to work with our founder's uncle. She knew about reCharkha work and had also bought one of our EcoSocial products. After working there for 25 years, she was looking for a change. At that time, reCharkha also had a vacancy for the post of a Production Head. Pournima took the opportunity and immediately joined us. She loves the cause that reCharkha works for and is glad to be a part of this small contribution towards the environment. She is 50 and always up for learning new things from all the other younger ones in the office. A mother herself, she makes sure everybody at the office has lunch on time. She says, "At this age, the work becomes hectic at times, but I love to work with all of you at the office." Also, she is the most enthusiastic dancer we have, always ready to shake a leg. Swipe and check out a video of her dancing during our new year party at the office.

Harshada started with us just about a year ago. Always cheerful and a quick learner! Loves to get challenges and eager to adopt new things. She stays away from her family along with her brother in Mumbai and works with reCharkha to be independent. She says that working with reCharkha gives her happiness and a sense of fulfilment in doing something unique, different and meaningful to the environment. She says "A Plastic Free Environment is a world without the harmful single-use plastics, thereby protecting our health and environment."

Manisha's mom, Lata was a househelp at our founder, Amita's home. Manisha used to come along with her as a helping hand, during the 12th grade vacations. Amita then asked her if, instead of being a househelp, would she like to work at reCharkha. At that time, our production unit anyways needed support staff. She willingly joined us while also completing her Bcom. Manisha is a hardworking young girl who is now assistant to our Production manager. She manages most of the production unit on her own and has also mastered her Excel skills while making daily production reports. And not to forget, she makes amazing masala chai for all of us at the office!

20-year old Vrushali, who completed her education till 12th grade and aspires to continue her education in B.Com. But since her family needed some financial support, she joined reCharkha. She stays with her parents and 2 siblings in Pune. “I was in shock”, says Vrushali when she heard for the first time about reCharkha and how it makes beautiful products from waste plastic. She feels happy to continue her education and also be working with us in her free time. Here She mainly involves helping tailors at their work and quality check of the finished products.

Aniket a resident of Pune, dropped out of school after 10th std due to health issues. He then worked for Pune Metro but was left unemployed after the contract ended. With reCharkha now, he relishes his office life now as he assists the tailors in their work. He aspires to become a graphic designer in the future. He's always been closely associated with the eco-social cause.He goes to the Singhad Fort, 35 km southwest of the city of Pune as part of cleaning drive every weekend!

Abiramie is from Pondicherry and joined reCharkha as a design intern back in 2018. It was after working here that she got introduced to the concept of sustainability. She later went back to complete her graduation in Textile Design from the National Institute of Fashion Technology, India. Post that, she immediately joined reCharkha as a full time employee and is now our designer. She loves to play with colours, fabrics, patterns and textures in a sustainable way, and enjoys the surprise of colours and patterns that the waste brings out in the upcycling process. You will always find her brainstorming on new products and designs along with our team of tailors. She says,“After joining reCharkha, I've discovered and learned new ways of sustainable living and designing....still learning the ways”

Kiran is a tribal youth, belonging to the Warli tribe of Western India. Due to the low educational standards of the local school, he dropped out of school after 9th grade. His 8 member-family is mostly dependent on rainfed agriculture, hence, being the eldest son, had to start earning to support the family income. Lack of employment options in his village, Kiran had to move his base to a nearby town in search of work, where he worked as a migrant laborer. When reCharkha came to his village with an opportunity to work, he immediately joined us and is now our lead weaver. While working with us, Kiran also gave his 10th and 11th grade exams. He is a bright and funny young man, who loves to crack jokes on his teammates. With him around, everyone laughs and has fun, while working equally hard for their living!

Vandana or 'Vandu' as we call her is our senior most female weaver. She is a tribal youth, belonging to the Warli tribe of Western India. She dropped out of school after 9th grade. Later at home she started helping her mother with the household chores, which meant limited exposure to the outside world. But borrowing money from her father everytime, did not feel right to her. So, when #reCharkha came to her village, she grabbed the opportunity to work. She joined #reCharkha as an assistant artisan and then soon picked up weaving as well. She now does other processing work, sets up the beam, creates new designs as well as weaves fabric. Being the senior weaver, she also teaches our new artisans and weavers. Despite her petite structure, she is a strong young woman and doesn’t get tired with an all day’s work. She is always cheerful and given a chance, loves to design her own patterns in the fabric.

Kapila recently completed her 12th grade and joined our team for upcycling plastic waste. She is a bright girl and has been able to pick up the craft very quickly. She has two younger siblings, who are still in school. Her father works on daily wages in a nearby town and her mother works as a sweeper at the village school. Kapila is proud that, now, she will be able to contribute to her family income.

Jitesh belongs to the Warli tribe and is mute and deaf by birth. Due to lack of special schools in the village, he remained illiterate, and hence never got a steady job. As he grew older, he started working as daily wage labor at construction sites in nearby towns. These jobs were never stable and sufficient to take care of his mute and deaf wife and two little daughters. He found reCharkha's work in his own village and was delighted to start working with us! He is very focused and rarely gets distracted from his work!

Sumitra is a Warli tribal, like all of her coworkers. She is a mother of four and lives with her eight-member family. Her family is engaged in rain fed agriculture and daily wage labor, which are both unreliable sources of consistent income. Hence, she is very proud to earn for her family and send all her four children to school. She works very hard and has learned the art of weaving quite quick to become one of our lead weavers in just 4 months.

Kalpesh is a new member of reCharkha's tribal unit. He is a Warli tribal, and is mute and deaf by birth, just like our other colleague, Jitesh. Kalpesh went to a special school in a nearby town, and ompleted his education until 10th grade. He returned back to his village, and started helping his family with farming and house work. He understood about our work from Jitesh and approached us for a job. He now works with us as a helper with our weaving team. Kalpesh is married to a beautiful young girl, who is also mute and deaf. They have a 1-year old daughter and live with Kalpesh's parents and elder brother's family of four. Kalpesh's earning has added some additional income to their family of 9 and he's really happy that he is helping his family as well as his community!

Aalam who hails from Bihar has studied till 8th std. He was previously working in Hyderabad with a private tailor and learned to stitch. He has more than 5 years of experience in bag stitching and is very good at his skills. At reCharkha he is one among our tailors who makes our designed products to come alive. Now he lives in Pune with his joint family.

Imran, is our new tailor who has an experience of 14 years in the bag making industry. He lives with his wife and a cute 2year old daughter in Pune. He loves to play cricket and travel with his family. Initially, he thought it will be difficult to work as the fabric is different than what he was used to ie. the cloth. Now, he is loving the work because it's different. He said, "Mujhe bohot acha lag raha hai, kuch hatke kaam hai aur paryavaran ko bhi bacha raha hun" (I am liking the work, it's different than usual and I am protecting the environment with my work).

Mohammad Bhaiya is one of reCharkha's team members from the Tailoring unit in Pune. He joined us in 2019. He came to Pune from his hometown Latur 22 years ago, for work. Having an experience of 15 years in the bag making field, he used to make backpacks and handbags at a Bag manufacturing company before coming to reCharkha. It was his brother that introduced him to reCharkha. Mohammad Bhaiya often comes early to work, before all of us and starts working on the machine. He is a very hardworking person and is the one who makes most of our bulk orders. His previous experience in stitching bags helps him bring new designs to life. He lives with his wife, and 3 children; 2 girls and a boy. Working with reCharkha makes him and his family delighted as he's working for a cause while also financially supporting his family.

"More kaka” as we lovingly like to address him, is usually a reserved and warm at heart person. A local resident of Ambegoan, Pune; has a sweet family of 4. His wife knows how to stitch as well and 2 sons, both of them studying in senior college. He is formally educated till 7th grade, after which he simply learnt tailoring; some out of interest and some out of necessity. Now it’s almost the 20th year he accompanies his sewing machine. He tailors throughout the working hours relentlessly, mostly keeping to himself and delivering on time. In his leisure time he enjoys watching cricket and kabaddi. He recalls his school days.

Gudiya Didi is originally from Prayagraj, and is a recent member of our Pune unit. She shifted to Pune with her husband for work. Though her name is Gudiya, she is a mother of a 15year old. Earlier Gudiya Didi used to stitch Jute Bags and when she came to know about reCharkha she joined us. Now it's been 6 months. She says "She loves the work that reCharkha has been doing to conserve the Environment and she has learnt a lot many things from Aalam Bhaiya, Mohommad Bhaiya and Imran Bhaiya(tailors from our Pune Unit) As Gudiya Didi is helping conserve our environment, can you support Gudiya Didi earn livelihood? Do check out the products Gudiya Didi and other artisans at reCharkha have made!

Originally from Karnataka, Sushma didi came to Pune 6 years ago, when she got married to her now husband. She discovered reCharkha on Facebook and heard about it's work from a few people around. She found a good work opportunity here and joined us. Sushma first started as a helper, assisting the tailors by providing them with the required raw material. Just recently, she also started with the stitching work on machine and is getting better day by day. She likes to learn new tailoring skills everyday. Sushma didi finds the concept very unique. She says, "Instead of throwing your polythene bags away, send them to us. We are here to upcycle those. But that doesn't mean you can keep on creating more and more waste."

Priyanka tai is born and brought up in Pune. She helps us with the cutting and sorting of plastics as well as assists the tailors with the required raw materials. Very Sincere in her work! She carefully trim the margins of the waste plastic bags and wrappers, as well as segregate them according to their thickness. This makes the task of our weavers easier and results in a better quality fabric. She lives with her husband and a 9 year old daughter, who by the way is a topper in every exam.

Shridevi comes from a family of farmers, from Bijapur, Karnataka. She joined us about 1 year back She assists tailors and also Quality Checks of the products. She lives here with her parents, and 2 siblings. Shridevi is still in college and has just completed the first year in Bachelors of Commerce. Extremely sharp and smart, it was Shridevi who realised the problem that our tailors faced with the sizes of cut linings. She then started writing the names and sizes on them once they are ready for stitching, hence saving a lot of time and confusion. She even managed an entire last moment bulk order on her own.

Dilip kaka has retired from his 31 year service as a bus conductor in Maharashtra ST Department, and now is back in his home village. In early years of his career, Dilip Kaka had worked for a year in Bombay's flourishing Textile industry, and thus had exposure to all the concepts of handloom weaving. He lives right next door to our unit and thus thought he could be the right person to be our supervisor and help hire women from the village as well. He is also very happy that he is investing his time in doing something productive with his retired life, and participating in the facilitation of livelihoods in his village. With a family of 5; one son and two daughters, who have settled outside the village, now only he and his wife stay in their village home. Having been a traveller all his life, his long standing wish is to travel in Himachal Pradesh, as traveling abroad is also a dream!

Sushma Tai is very creative and cheerful lady. She lives with her husband and a young daughter. She studied up to 12th class in Latur and moved to Bare, Bhor post her marriage. She loves reading and making Mehndi. Prior to working with reCharkha, she has worked at a hospital as a Dresser. Night shifts and having a young daughter at home made it difficult for her. During this time she got to know about reCharkha. She joined us right away. She says “I really enjoy my time here. I get to work, laugh and talk to like minded people sharing a similar life as mine.”

RanjanaTai is very passionate lady. She lives with her husband and two sons. She also has a daughter who is married. Tai completed her Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Bhor and worked at CFC before joining reCharkha. When she got to know about reCharkha. She joined us right away. She says “I really enjoy my time here, and says she is proud of herself that she is standing on her own, working and taking care of her family." Tai helps us cutting the Waste Plastic, weaving and beaming. She loves weaving Designer Fabrics.

Shobha Suresh Khutwad is a resident of Bare, Pune; she lives with her husband who is unemployed and a 25 year old son, who works at a nearby hospital. Her daughter is married. She moved to Bhor from Vadtumbi after her marriage. She did her schooling till 7th grade and later started helping her family with farming. But due to water scarcity, farming in this area is not a reliable source of income as they can cultivate only during monsoons. Shobha Maushi is happy working with reCharkha, as she likes to say it “हे माझं घरच आहे-This feels like home”. She takes great pride in her work.

Swati Tai is a warm at heart personality. She did her schooling till grade 7th from Bare Khurd and there onwards till grade 10th in Bhor, Pune. She stays in a big Maharashtrian joint family. At reCharkha unit, she feels at home like family; to share with them about life, to laugh and cry and work together. Prior to working with reCharkha, she used to farm like every other person there. At reCharkha, she does cutting of the plastic, weaving and warping and is happy to learn and educate others about plastic.

Maya tai is one of the new members from our Bhor unit. Orginally from a nearby village called Bholavda, tai later moved to Bhor. Her husband passed away about two years back and she now lives with her two daughters and a son. Raising her kids all by herself isn't an easy job. But tai wishes to see all of them stand on their own feet and become independent when they grow up. She earlier used to work at an Ice Cream factory in Bhor. Now at reCharkha, tai helps us with cutting the Waste Plastic Bags and Wrappers to be spun on charkha and also does the weaving. When asked how does it feel like working with reCharkha, she says,"I feel like I should work everyday and not take holidays". She also says everyone at work support each other and they live like Hum Sath Sath Hain.

Surekha tai is one of the new members at our Bhor unit. She got to know about reCharkha from her neighbours who also work with us. Tai is originally from a nearby village, Utravli and later moved to Bhor after getting married. She doesn't have kids and lives with her husband, who is an Asthma patient. He has been sick for around 3 years now and tai is the one who takes care of him. She earlier used to work at her farm where she grew rice. Surekha tai now helps us with cutting the waste plastic bags and wrappers to be spun on the charkha. She has also started weaving fabrics and makes one fabric each day. She wants to learn more about the work that is being done at reCharkha. Like most other women here, this is her first ever job and enjoys is thoroughly.

Jyoti Tai comes from the village of Kumbardi in Maharashtra. She came to Bhor 11 years ago when she got married and has been living here with her family since then. Being a girl from such a small village, her parents never allowed her to work. After marriage, she still used to contribute to the family income by stitching blouses and clothes on her sewing machine. This is her first ever job and she says that reCharkha made her dream, of working, come true. While her husband travels to Pune for work on a daily basis, she is busy weaving beautiful upcycled fabrics, and warping up the yarn. She has 2 kids, a girl and a boy. Initially, she was doubtful if she would be able to do this work. But her young kids reassured her and encouraged her to work. Now she beems with pride when her kids ask not only their father, but also their mother, to get gifts for them.

A recent member of reCharkha's EcoSocial Tribe, Indu lives near our new unit in Bhor Taluka. She is super new but is already helping us in setting up the Beam and working on the Handloom. She has picked up things very quickly and is a perfectionist. Very enthusiastic to learn new things. She is one of the weaver who is always excited to weave new designs and that too with utmost perfection … If she finds any pattern or colour not aligned she redoes it and says “Aatta hey chan distay, ho ki nai* ♥️