Discarded flowers from a temple add fragrance to an initiative 

Paper Flower empowers a women’s self-help group and adults with special needs

The sight and scent of flowers dried at the parking lot draw curious passersby into Ananya Apartments at 1st Street, W Block in Anna Nagar.

“On most days, between noon and 3 p.m, you will find petals separated from the stem, spread on a cotton cloth for drying,” says Keerthi Prabhu, relationship manager at Paper Flower.

The store sells a wide range of upcycled products, notably agarbathis made from temple flowers, which clearly imparts a ‘green aroma’ to the social enterprise. Keerthi says many visitors to the store reveal they discovered it by the pleasant scent.

An autorickshaw ferries used flowers from Sri Anna Nagar Ayyappa Temple in gunny bags around 10 a.m. every day. The flowers are washed, dried and ground by a women’s self-help group.

The mix is taken home where the five women roll it into sticks. After adding oil that lends it its fragrance, the sticks are sent to Gurukulam School, where adults with special needs adults pack them into boxes of 24 each.

In 2020, Vinatha Hari, who leads Paper Flower, expanded the scope of her social enterprise, established in 2018, as she had some time on her hands.

“We started in a small way giving saplings in cocopeat planters for every 5 kg of newspapers people brought to us. These newspapers are then made into bags by engaging the mentally challenged children of DS School of Special Children Welfare Association under their parents’ guidance and sold at our store,” says Vinatha.