Eggshells have never been considered very useful. However, women in the Sarguja district of Chhattisgarh, with help from the Ambika Municipal Corporation, have found a unique way to contribute to their family income by using these eggshells and also get empowered along the way!
For the past one year, Ritu Sen, the collector of Sarguja, has been promoting the need for women empowerment in Chhattisgarh, and this need led to the birth of several initiatives under which self-help groups were formed, and women found employment opportunities as canteen administrators, parking attendants, and even managed solid waste in the city.
The women were trained by C Srinivasan, an environmentalist, who has been sharing his ideas of making the best use of waste on esteemed platforms like Satyamev Jayate and TEDx.
The eggshells are washed with water, dried under the sun and crumbled before being filtered with a sieve to make the calcium powder.
One kilogram of this eggshell powder will be added to one quintal of seeds meant for chickens. This will replenish calcium in the seeds, thus optimising their health.
Speaking to the Nai Duniya Jagran, Dr CK Mishra, the manager of a Government Poultry Center in Chhattisgarh, said, “Under the guidance of Collector of Sarguja, for the first time in the state, production of the eggshell powder has been started in the Sakala Poultry Farm by C Sreenivasan, a knowledge seeker of solid waste management.
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Apart from this, the eggshells will also be used as fertilisers for flowers and other crops.
Eggshells take a long time to compost as compared to other types of wet waste like peels, seeds etc. So, the women’s self-help group will make fertiliser exclusively from eggshells to curb the dirt spread from shells.
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Both the powder and fertiliser will be priced between Rs 200 and Rs 600 per kg. The groups have estimated a yield of between 50 to 60 kg of shell powder per month, giving them an income of between Rs 12000 and Rs 36000 per month!
(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)
