Anu LIFE, India - Women's Enterprise

ANU Life is a small enterprise of 12 women in a slum in East Bangalore. They buy used tetra pack cartons of milk/juice and turn them into useful products.

Used milk/juice cartons are bought from colleges and building complexes. The used cartons are washed, cleaned, dried and later are cut into strips and then woven into bags, pouches, and bins. They are then lined and stitched by a local tailor. The women make one large bag and one small bag each day. (1)

Devika’s work in urban slums started in Bangalore in 2009, when she set up the Anu business unit in JanakiRam slum – which in four years has transformed into a private limited company completely owned and operated by the women from the slum, with no intervention from Devika. (2)

They have an online shop with the following products (3):

  • Large baskets
  • Medium baskets
  • Small baskets
  • Grocery bags/baskets
  • Large shopper
  • Medium shopper
  • Small shopper
  • Snack sacks
  • Pencil pouch

Example products

Facebook 2019 (4)

2018-17

2016

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2014

How to clean

Fold the sides up
Cut along the folding line
Same for top and bottom
Clean the inside
Don't soak for too long
Let it dry
Fold on the corner lines as not to make any new folds in the pack

anu LIFE, Bangalore

PROFILE

ANU is a project that aims to improve the lifestyle of a group of families in the slums at Janakiram Layout nearby Kammanahalli in Bangalore. The project focusses on empowering women as the main bread winners.

ANU wants to establish a sustainable and profitable centre for and by the women of this area. At ANU the women obtain skills through which they will be able to earn an additional income. They manufacture handmade products out of recycled tetra packs and cement bags. The ANU centre also gives these women access to better health care, education and financial advice.

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