RAGS TO RICHES

Join Barbara Pyle as she journeys to New Delhi, India to visit her friend, entrepreneur and nuclear physicist Ashok Khosla. Ashok puts his brain power and business-sense to work at his organization “Development Alternatives”. 

“Development Alternatives” provides environmentally sound  jobs for thousands of people in India.  The jobs range from paper production to brick making.  All of the businesses use discarded waste or readily available materials such as mud as their primary supplies… so they don’t destroy natural resources. The production processes are labor intensive, which creates more jobs. 

 

Ashok calls these jobs “sustainable livelihoods”.  The production techniques are so safe and simple that Barbara is able to quickly learn and lend a helping hand.  Pyle learns how to turn rags into paper from Sunita.  Sunita’s job has boosted her self-confidence… enabling her to resist pressure from her husband and mother-in-law to have many children.  Ashok believes finding a balance between population and the environment is the only way to achieve sustainability.

 

 

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