Golden Feathers - The Transformation

Radhesh Agrahari (Director)  Undergraduate  in Textile Design and Fashion Technology ( NIIFT) AND Postgraduate in Textile Designer from India Institute of Crafts and Design(IICD) ,JAIPUR, India. Radhesh while doing his PG was asked to do a project to convert waste into utility product, invented a new natural  Fiber from Chicken Butchery waste. On completion of Post Grad, I joined Trifed India and  gave Crafts  training to  more than 2000+ Tribal women. In 2016 I started  own company and gave employment to 200+ Tribal women for hand Crafting and Handloom work in Asnawar ( a backward Tribal region ), Rajasthan, India.  In 2019 we won a prestigious award from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII): 9th CII DESIGNEXCELLENCE AWARD for" DESIGN FOR SOCIALIMPACT AND SUSTAINABILITY”  and CII DESIGN EXCELLENCE AWARD for OVER ALL CATEGORY OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN.  In 2020 I won 10th  AEGIS GRAHAM BELL AWARD FOR INNOVATION IN CLEAN TECH

1. Our project addresses Life Transformational  Livelihood generation for Tribal women in backward areas through Sustainable Development. We as well solve Social, Environmental, River Water, Land Pollution and Health hazards, Food waste and Carbon Footprint problems.

2. We collect  Butchery Chicken Waste(BCW)  from local poultry slaughter houses and extract Chicken Feathers by performing sanitization processes. We convert Feathers into Pulp & Yarn to Feather Wool. Our Trained Tribal women ( 200+) use hand-carding, spinning, weaving to make very warm, soft, durable, light wearable fabric, Stoles, Quilts, Jackets, Mufflers. By-Product: scientifically compost fertilizer for local farmers.

3, Our Worker Tribal woman can earn upto INR 15000/month ( $200 ), free daily meals and family benefits. Our 25% of profit is used for Tribal community welfare, Children Education, Health, Relief during Floods and Droughts. Our BCW recycling reduces 250000 Kg of Carbon footprint and 120000 Kg  of river pollutants annually.

1. We are enabling Secure, sustainable, and dignified livelihood generation for Tribal women living in backward Tribal areas of India.

2. Reduce catastrophic threat to environment caused by Pollution from Butchery Chicken Waste( BCW) in India.

Factors:

a)The Indian Tribal communities, poorest among the poor, has around 56.4 million Tribal Women (4.8% of total Indian population). Most Tribal women have lowest socio-economic profile, live unhealthy lives, in conditions of ignorance and poverty. Along with routine household work, these women work as unskilled labor in the agricultural fields, Stone queries,forests for long hours for meager earnings less than $10 per month and lack any permanent sources of income. 

b) On an average 1 Kg of Chicken (having 6.9 Kg Carbon Footprint) produces 300 Gm of BCW, containing 70 Gm Feathers. Global broiler meat production in 2020 estimated to be 80 Million Tons, implies  ~24 Million BCW. India BCW production ~1.2 Million Tons including ~0.4 Million Tons of  chicken Feathers.  In India most of this BCW is dumped into Uninhabited area Landfills and Water bodies leading to water & land  pollution (both surface and ground water), health hazards, poor air quality, ~15% pollution of Indian rivers is only due to chicken waste.

We generate  continuous sustainable  livelihood for Tribal women in remote Tribal areas of Rajasthan, India by converting Butchery Chicken Waste ( BCW) into Handloom Cloth, enabling sustainable development, reduction in Environmental pollution & health hazards.

Our organization collects BCW  from local poultry slaughter house as a raw material. We hygienically through multiple sanitization processes extract Chicken Feathers and convert it into Pulp and Yarn for Handloom Cloth.

This Feather wool yarn is given to  Tribal women and artisans (trained by our organization)  to make various wearable items ( from their home or workshops ) like running Cloth, Quilt, Shawls, Jackets, Embroidery, Stoles, and Mufflers. The by-product from our process is scientifically converted into compost  and distributed to local farmers as Fertilizer. The cost of Feather wool Thread is very low as it is extracted from garbage hence can  compete against regular wool and cotton, synthetic fiber based apparels.

Our organization in the  last 3 years has recycled ~500 Tons of butchery chicken waste ( BCW) into  Handloom Cloth and generated livelihood and have impacted lives of around 200+ Tribal women paying 20 Times more than average and families, 375+ Semi skilled/Unskilled workers and empowered 2000+ tribal women through Handloom activities.

Our Project serves Indian Tribal Women, widely known as Adivasis, The Bhil and Shahriyas Tribes,  confined to economic and social backwardness and are the poorest among the poor. Our project enables empowerment of Tribal Women by dignified artisan Livelihood.    

We  train these women  in handloom activities like Hand carding, weaving, Handloom, spinning and embroidery. and then giving them work, raw material (feather wool, Yarn etc), Tools and Equipment  to earn income by making handloom products like running cloth, soft warm woolen apparel items.  These products are then sold at competitive prices  in various retail shops, Government Handloom houses, Khadi-bhandars,  Craft exhibitions  in India.

Our project is also  helping in eliminating the pollution caused to environment,  land and water bodies  by Butchery Chicken Waste.   

Our sustainable development method, gives them a secure and dignified livelihood. A Tribal woman worker can earn monthly average income of  INR 15000 ( ~$200/month ) 20x than average, free daily one time meal and family benefits. We impact around 200 plus Tribal women and their families living  in Tribal backward areas of  Jhalawaad,  Rajasthan, India. Our 25% of profit is used for Tribal community welfare, small loans, Children Education, Health, Relief during Floods and Droughts.

Empowering of Tribal Women : Tribals, are confined to economic and social backwardness. Poverty, lack of knowledge, sickness (ill health) and exploitation are a few of the complex problems. They have little access to education, health/nutrition, opportunity to acquire skills/training, employment opportunities, and Tribal women face further discrimination in many areas of life. Adivasi women are doubly excluded from the mainstream development process as Adivasis and also as Women.

The Feather wool from Chicken Butchery waste, untouchable a big source of pollution,  we use it to make very soft, warm wearable cloth, changing people’s attitude and lives. Hence Two Dimensions

During my college days in 2010, I  got a classroom project to ‘convert a waste into a utility product’.  I felt here was an opportunity to challenge myself. The same evening I was visiting a butchery shop to buy chicken and realized that 1 Kg chicken gets only 650 gm meat, rest is a waste thrown into gutter, I decided to do my project on this waste. In college everyone laughed at me and my crazy idea. I took the challenge, with lots of research in 2 weeks, I made a paint brush from the chicken feathers, unfortunately Faculty gave poor feedback, Undeterred, continued my research. In 2013 my final Postgraduation  Project was “Chicken with Golden Feathers” ,the jury adjudged as the Best Project ever submitted in last 10 Yrs history of Institution. In 2015 with lots of Research/Experimentation  I made yarn from this chicken Fiber and  later on set the yarn on the Handloom and converted into fabric. Today it is known as 6th natural woolen fiber that is 10 times warmer, softer and durable than any other man-made or natural woolen Fiber. Trained 200+ Tribal women Handloom to make Stoles & Mufflers and are still employed with us. 

I belong to Rajasthan, a Desert State of India which has a great heritage of Arts, Crafts, and unique  culture built over centuries through Tribal Artisans & Communities. My  ancestor supported these Tribal's Craft & Culture in the past. In last few decades Tribals have become poorest, remained uneducated, backward community  and very few could keep up with  Socio-economic, Mechanization and Industrial growth change. Tribal Women worst affected had no choice but to earn livelihood by picking and selling dry wood collected from forests, work as unskilled temporary laborer in fields and Stone queries.

Since my college days, been a Chicken Food lover, but realized how much waste it generates. The chicken waste garbage is thrown into rivers, causing water  pollution & health hazards. Such pollution of water bodies is a man-mad disaster especially in Deserts.  These realizations made me determined to do something, strive to change for better, became passion and choice of career and life. Today have changed lives of so many Tribal Women especially homeless Women & Widows, by giving livelihood through Handloom, a dignified life. I have converted Chicken garbage into wool cloth, while preventing thousands of tons of chicken garbage being dumped into water bodies.  

My entire education, Career and research in last the 12 years has been  is in the area of textile, crafts, Handloom and creating livelihood and improving life for Tribal Women.

I passed my UnderGraduate in 2010 FROM Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology Mohali (NIIFT Mohali) which is one of the leading Fashion Technology Institute in India  in the field of Fashion design, Textile design and Fashion design knits.  I did my post graduation from The Indian Institute of Crafts & Design, Jaipur  as TEXTILE DESIGNER in year 2013.  The main objective of IICD is to generate knowledge, upgrade skills and foster attitudes in order to develop highly motivated change agents in the craft sector. As pioneer the Institute works towards the evolution of crafts and the artisans in the contemporary socio-economic context. As moto, sensitizes budding designers to the issues of sustainability and awareness of eco-system for which solutions are designed and  has a continuously evolving, vibrant environment of experimentation and innovation.

On successful completion of Post Grad  I took a job with TRIFED India,  TRIFED is committed to meaningfully transform the lives of tribal residents in India. , TRIFED is mandated to ringing about socio-economic development of tribal of the country.  TRIFED is involved actively in capacity building of the tribal people through training the tribal in several activities, so that they can effectively carry them out. This helped to apply my knowledge, Feather wool Innovation and experience with Tribal community to generate Livelihood for Tribal women.

I overcame so many challenges - Money to pay Handloom workers and self family expenses, so many times I was penniless with no support from anywhere. Insufficient funds for continuous research,  strength testing of thread in Lab. I tried to overcome by making and selling feather filled quilts, Rugs, Fashion Feather accessories, ear rings, Paint Brushes to generate fund and pool into my research work to make yarn from Feather Pulp and finally Cloth.   

Tried multiple hundreds of cycles of trial and error on chicken feather pulp process finally into Thread,  I kept working harder and  overcame challenges by talking to Fiber experts, textile weaver, local craftsmen and thread/spinning makers, tried multiple techniques to finally learn a very unique process that helped me create 6th Natural Fiber stronger, warmer, softer  and lighter than any other man-made fiber today.   

Had to overcome Tribal Social and cultural Taboos,  high resistance from male/family heads to allow train  women in handloom. I overcame  by convincing relentlessly community elders and as well pay women even during training workshops. I had to go to so many exhibitions, Govt and private retail shops to sell the Handloom Apparels till they became widely demanded. 

I have so many stories of Tribal Women who were living a very tough life before due to  poverty, domestic violence and social malpractices, Physical & Emotional sufferings during pregnancy, being homeless widows with children.  and having no sources of income for daily basic expenses. Most women were forced to work as Unskilled laborers in Fields, Stone queries, and Forests. 

My organization took care of such Tribal women, trained and employed 200+ women out of which 70% are Widows with dependent children and old parents. Today these women live a happy, dignified independent life, send their children to school and higher studies, teach their daughters Handloom/craft skills at home for better livelihood. I had to build lot of trust and confidence in communities, I started training in very small groups of 5 and slowly impact of earnings and family benefits started showing results. I have a small team of  social workers  who would further help in convincing elders and women to join Handloom activities and even train them inside their homes.   

Today in the Tribal community, myself and team is recognized and respected by Tribal Families for transforming their lives, created growth opportunities and empowerment. 

Our Handloom products are made of Yarn from recycled Chicken Feathers waste. Hence it has both its cost competitiveness and quality advantage. Our Process is  unique and is an IP (IP NUMBER IS- 20171103044 ) based process of converting Butchery chicken waste into Yarn and Pulp. The competitive advantages include cloth quality. Our cloth Fiber has these attributes  :GSM 111.2 ;( Lightest GSM in existing natural fibres) ; ELONGATION 7.7 ; TENSILE STRENGTH 1.41; MOISTURE CONTENT 4.8; BLEND  91.%. Quality of the fiber is very soft , light weight, durable. One can easily pass 2-2.5 mtr of  Fabric from your finger ring. Feather fabric will not be affected for more than 5-7 years by usual use, wash, wear & tear  or environment changes. We can term our products are lightest, natural, breathable, Handwoven/Handloomed, comfortable and sustainable in their category with very low cost against other natural woolen fiber based products and easy use for Handloom work. 

Our Running cloth from Handloom can be used for variety of Apparel and Garments hence unlimited usage to meet customer demand of variety, low cost, warm  and high quality wearable products.   In India we have won prestigious 9th CII DESIGN EXCELLENCE AWARD for “DESIGN FOR SOCIAL IMPACT AND SUSTAINABILITY”.  Also won in  OVER ALL CATEGORY OF INDUSTRIAL DESIGN. AEGIS GRAHAM BELL AWARD FOR INNOVATION IN CLEAN TECH. Hence having an excellent wearable warm cloth from waste chicken feathers is very innovative and disruptive leading allow Handloom cloth very competitive against other woolen warm cloths.

• Existing Problem : The Tribal Women in the backward region need better, dignified life and higher paying livelihood to alleviate their Poverty. Need education, skills, work from home and less harsh labor environments of Fields, stone queries and Construction sites, overcome patriarchal  society, taboos, poor economic and living conditions, remove sufferings from abusive, domestic violence, homeless Divorcees or Widow life. The Handloom apparel products should be high quality, cost effective and competitively priced to pay standard wages to Tribal Women.
• Desired State: Tribal woman trained on Handloom making sellable cost effective Apparels market at good & competitive, to get paid regular standard wages with benefits. Can choose to do Artisan work from home, take care of their children. Divorcees and Widows live independent life, take good care of their dependent parents and children, provide education and growth. To Make large volume of cost effective Handloom products very low cost high quality thread and tools.
• Changes Need : To implement Tribal Women and families need to be incentivized, overcome social taboos  to attend and get trained in Handloom activities & skilled to make sellable high quality apparels using low cost Thread & yarn from Chicken feather provided. Organization having sufficient working capital, marketing  and apparel well priced orders.

We achieved

• Short term outcomes in last 3 Years: Handloom Trained and employed 200+ Tribal Women ( 70% are Widows, Homeless ), paid  20 times average pay in friendly secure environment. Have sold thousands of Woolen Apparels made from Thread from Chicken Feather waste.
• Medium Term Outcomes: This higher earnings have improved their quality of life, social status and independent empowered women in family and community. Children are going to schools. We have prevented pollution from 500 Tons waste into our rivers and land fill. More than 200+ families life have been uplifted. 
• Long term outcomes : Reduced migration of Tribal Labors to Urban, Exploitation of Tribal Women, Have Build community based self-help groups, Tribal women running social NGO and Skills training.  Our efforts have created safer drinking water and less polluted surface and underground water resources and health hazards

Our organization is currently serving 205 Tribal Women. In next 1 year we intend to serve 550 Tribal women by adding one more processing Unit. In next five years we would serve 8000 Tribal women across India. This would impact 50000 Lives as family members of these tribal women in a positive way.

My goal with in next few year to setup a Tribal Handloom Village ( THV)  in various Tribal  Regions of India. These THVs will be fully equipped as BCW processing and handling unit, Handloom Training Centers, Workshops, Primary education schools, Basic Clinic, Health & Nutrition, Women Counselling and R&D centers and Handi-Craft Tourism Village Homes.  In this year next THV would be in Madhya Pradesh, India. Planning for 600+ Tribal women to be  Handloom trained and skilled, and employ at least 500+ Tribal women.  I would like to process 300 Tons of Butchery Chicken waste annually to produce Woolen apparels. I would like to get large USD 500K orders from International Market. Win at least one Prestigious International Innovation Award through applications. In Next five years setup 12 THV with  Butchery chicken waste feather Processing units in India, Vietnam, Nepal, Srilanka and Bhutan and train at least 12000 Tribal women in Handloom activities. Employing at least 8000 Tribal women across India. Deliver International orders from USA, Japan, Europe and UK worth 10 Million USD. I would like to setup well organized Butchery Chicken waste collection model from large cities chicken slaughter houses and its delivery to various processing units. Setup logistics model for Thread/Yarn packets delivery to remote Tribal homes clusters and Handloom Apparel pickup to enable remote smaller tribal regions into Handlooms. I would be setting up 3 Biofuel generation unit from Butchery Chicken waste left after removing Feathers. Currently we are composting this leftover waste into fertilizer scientifically

In next 1 year :

Financial working capital to train 500+ Tribal women, pay wages and produce enough stock and fast enough that can be sold during Winter season.

Marketing : Need lot of marketing efforts which will be very difficult due to Covid-19. Travel restrictions to Europe and USA will make marketing our products in International market a big challenge.

Grants/Loans: Financial Institutions and Grants are focused and spending on covid-19 impacted MSMEs and Migrant labors. Hence getting funds could be a challenge.

I need to also acquire Land in Tribal areas to setup the unit and due to Covid-19 most of the administrative machinery is frozen.

Finding and Hiring skilled labor to setup processing units and BCW collection logistics in new location.

In Next five Years

• Financial working Capital for growth in the range of 5 Million USD.
• Management and team to manage growth, run multiple THVs. Around 50+ Dedicated team.
• Systems and Technology:  Command and Control  centers to manage Marketing and sales retail points, Order Processing, delivery, warehouse, Back-office and Operations.
• Multiple NGO and Volunteer network groups for Tribal Women  Recruitment, Training and support. Around 100+ volunteers and Artisans.
• Tribal Welfare centers to overcome cultural and social restrictions. Around 10 welfare Centers. Government approvals to setup THV in various parts of India, acquire Land, Infrastructure and operability of 12 THVs,

In next 1 year :

Financial : Take Loans and utilize some personal funds to kick start the new unit. Try for Grants and loans from Banks for MSMEs.

Marketing :Set up small marketing focused team and campaign. Update our website to be able to take e-commerce orders. Connect with NGOs and CSRs for support for corporate orders.

Grants/Loans: Apply Khadi and SFURTI schemes recently launched by Govt.

I need to also acquire Land in Tribal areas : Take land on Rent and later acquire it.

Setup public tenders to get interested vendors from the local areas.

In Next five Years

• Financial working Capital : Allow equity investment against our Impact funding based valuations. Raised 3-4 Million USD. Balance use profits generated to be ploughed back for growth.
• Management and team : work with Management consultants and help build the team.
• Systems and Technology:  Implement ERP and related systems which are subscription and Cloud based.
• Multiple NGO and Volunteer network : Publish, advertise and setup Volunteer network. Contact local NGO partners.
• Tribal Welfare centers : Take help from Ministry Of Tribal Affairs.
• Government approvals : Need to work with State based Departments for Tribal affairs to help.

We partner with local grass root level NGOs for getting know needy tribal women for support and training.

Our Business model revolves around selling Handloom warm Apparels products made by Tribal women community trained by our organization. Clothing wool material used  is Yarn from Recycled Chicken waste feathers. These Handloom/Garments  are sold to Indian Emporiums, Khadi Centers,  Tribes India shops/outlets, Government Departments, Garment Expos and Bulk purchased by Corporates.

We serve Tribal communities in backward remote belts of Rajasthan; most are presently confined to economic and social backwardness. Poverty, lack of knowledge, sickness (ill health) and exploitation. They have little access to education, health and nutrition, opportunity to acquire skill and training, employment opportunities. We empower them through sustainable growth, especially Tribal Women. We provide sustainable, dignified, secured livelihood, standard wages & welfare to Tribal women. The wages given are 20 times higher than average earned  in this backward area by Tribal women. We also provide wages  and work to more than 75+ Semi skilled, Unskilled laborers and  Marginalized communities. Our organization provides 3 months of  Training in Handloom,  Weaving,  Embroidery, Wool preparation  to  Tribal women. During the training we pay them regular wages for incentivizing family to allow such trainings and later they are  employed in our organization at standard wages and benefits. We have already trained and upskilled more than 2000+ women in this area for this purpose in last 5 years. Our 25% of profit is used for Tribal community welfare, Children Education, Health, Relief during Floods and Droughts.

We enable sustainable Livelihood generation, social Development, reduce Environment Pollution, Food waste and Carbon Footprint.

We are Financially Profitable with around 45% gross margin. One of the key reason of financial success is the low input of  cost  Butchery Chicken Waste, easily available. Our organization in the  last 3 years has recycled 500000 Kg of butchery chicken waste ( BCW) into  Handloom Cloth and generated livelihood and impacted around 200+ Tribal women.   This fabric is far warmer, lighter, softer than any other existing natural and man-made woolen fibers. A complete eco-friendly sustainable. Our Product have many accolades, Innovation awards and well recognized in India.

We have generated 3.95 Cr (USD 565000)  revenue ( in last 3.5 yrs) by selling Handloom products including  Thousands of Quilts, warm Jackets, woven cloth, shawls, Stoles, mufflers , Chicken feather wool in the market.  These products were made from Feather Fiber produced in our Chicken waste processing unit in Jhalawad, Rajasthan.

We intend to fund our scale-up and growth plans through Indian and International Grants, Indian Government schemes for MSMEs, Investors and Bank Loans.  In this year 2020-2021 we need money to launch at least one sustainable growth clusters with Livelihood generation in Tribal regions of India. We need around USD 500000 to setup a similar complete unit in Tribal Region of Madhya Pradesh, India that will employ at around 600+ Tribal Women and 150+ unskilled laborers.  This will also recycle 1500 Tons of Butchery Chicken waste and reduction of related river and land pollution annually.  Our company is For-Profit social impact based organization for local communities well being.

We are generating revenue and are profitable.  We have generated USD 565000 revenue ( in last 3.5 yrs) with good gross margins by selling Handloom products. In last financial year sale was USD 87000. We do foresee some challenges this year due revenue to Covid-19 and are trying to assess its impact on total projections for this financial year. Our sale has gone down by 70% in last 4 Months due to country wide lockdowns.  

As  a Startup  we  became a part of a one year ( 2018-19)  incubation program called INVENT at Startup Oasis,( supported by Villgro, Funded by UK Government and Technology Development Board.)  https://www.villgro.org/    http://startupoasis.in/  gave  a funding of  USD 71500, as a low interest long term debt, in the year Sep 2019, besides the strategy support from them. 

In this year 2020-2021 we need money to launch at least one Tribal Handloom Village ( THV) sustainable growth clusters with Livelihood generation in Tribal regions of India. We need around USD 500000 to setup a similar complete unit in Tribal Region of Madhya Pradesh, India that will employ at around 500+ Tribal Women and 150+ unskilled laborers. To start minimally this year (2020-21) we need USD 125000 to start the new project. We have secured already USD 50000 and trying to get the balance  funds by September 2020 to start the new unit. We are open to debt/equity or grant avenues.  On the Existing Processing and Handloom Unit we anticipate much lower revenue due to covid-19 but are confident to sail through in black this financial year based on pre-booked orders we already have in-hand. Describe how much funding you seek, the type of funding (e.g. grant, debt, or equity), by when you hope to raise the money, and any other relevant details. Please provide any monetary amounts in US dollars. As with the other application questions, your answer will be publicly viewable, so use discretion when sharing financial information.

Our estimated expenses for existing Production Unit is USD 45000 includes payment of basic minimum wages to Tribal women currently working with our Unit. Due to covid-19 we have to look for restructuring some of our loss anticipated this year. For the new Unit (THV)  being proposed in our plans we are budgeting USD 70000 as Investment+Expenses for this year.

Elevate Prize can help

1. Financial support as working capital to setup new Tribal Handloom Villages.

2. Get us International Credibility to get Impact Investment Funds for growing in Asia Pacific region successfully.

3. International Market and connects to large CSRs to promote our cause.

4. Management and Technology Mentoring to scale up

5. R&D unit setup Units for Biofuel from Buthchery Chicken waste.