In the bustling city of Nagpur, 17-year-old Tejas Pugalia, a class 12 student at Centre Point School, is driven by a simple desire to help others. What started as tutoring a friend from a marginalised community soon uncovered a much larger issue.

It all began in 2022 when he decided to help the son of a household maid with his studies. The boy, younger than Tejas, lived in a world where access to education was a challenge, especially in rural areas. “As I tutored him, I learnt about the struggles children face in government schools,” he tells The Better India. “One of the most alarming issues I learnt was that many children didn’t attend school during the monsoon season because they didn’t have bags and their books would get ruined. Instead, some had to take up household chores or get involved in child labour, creating a gap in their education.”

The 17-year-old was deeply moved as he realised that the lack of a school bag was preventing children in government schools from continuing their education during monsoons. It was a problem that he wanted to solve sustainably. With his curiosity piqued and his heart set on helping, he thought about the possibility of upcycling textile waste, a serious environmental issue, and using it to create school bags that would be eco-friendly and affordable.

How Threads4Good came to life

This was the moment that stirred the idea for ‘Threads4Good’, an initiative founded on empathy and the belief that communities can unite to solve the world’s most pressing problems.

He knew that this was not a task he could tackle alone and understood the importance of collaboration. “I needed help, but had no idea where to start. I turned to my connections on LinkedIn, and was amazed by the response,” he shares. “Soon, I had a group of like-minded volunteers from all over India, eager to be a part of this cause.”

In August, Tejas assembled a team of passionate volunteers who shared his vision of making education accessible for all government school children. He partnered with the Robin Hood Army to identify underprivileged children in need of school bags.

“We visited several government schools and conducted surveys with just a few questions. The most important one was, ‘Do you attend school during the monsoon season?’ The answer was either ‘yes’ or ‘no’. For those who answered no, we asked the reason behind it. The main problems we found were lack of transportation and, more significantly, the lack of proper school bags,” he explains.

The next thing he focused on was creating sustainable school bags. He organises textile waste collection drives, often partnering with his school to make the process easy. “We collect everything from old t-shirts to industrial textiles, and the school community plays a big role........

© The Better India