From Temple Flowers to Livelihood: Empowering Women in Ramatheertham

Services and history

This Training enabled the production of eco-friendly incense sticks, dhoop sticks, and mosquito coils using dried temple flowers, along with packaging turmeric, saffron, and sandalwood powder for temple sales. The program fostered women’s entrepreneurship, sustainable income, and environmental conservation.

Experience the Journey of Empowerment – Watch Now!

This video showcases the transformative Ramatheertham training program, where The SHHOP trained local women in making eco-friendly incense sticks, dhoop sticks, and mosquito coils using dried temple flowers instead of charcoal. The initiative, organized by DRDA and financed by NABARD, also included training on packaging turmeric (pasupu), saffron (kumkuma), and sandalwood powder (chandanam) for temple sales. Witness how this program empowered women, created sustainable livelihoods, and promoted environmental conservation.

Flowers Reused

Every day, tons of flowers are offered to deities across India, and Ramatheertham in Vizianagaram is no exception. Lord Rama receives approximately 1,580 kg of flowers daily, with quantities soaring on auspicious days. Instead of being discarded as waste, these sacred flowers are carefully collected and shade-dried.

Before drying, the flowers are sorted by family—roses, marigolds, lilies, and similar varieties. The petals are separated from the stems, then dried and ground into a fine, fragrant powder using a flour mill. The stems undergo the same process but are further infused with shade-dried neem leaves to enhance their effectiveness for mosquito coils.

To create incense sticks (agarbattis), a natural plant-based binding agent is used to mix the powdered petals with sawdust. This mixture is then processed through a semi-automatic agarbatti-making machine. By simply changing the die in the machine, the same setup can produce dhoop sticks.

This innovative approach not only prevents temple waste but also transforms it into valuable products, empowering women with sustainable livelihoods while promoting eco-friendly practices.

Result:
Women Entrepreneurs

As a result of this program, the trained women have formed a producers' company and are now successfully selling their handcrafted organic products within the temple premises, including incense sticks (agarbattis), dhoop sticks, mosquito coils, turmeric (pasupu), saffron (kumkuma), and sandalwood powder (chandanam).