Going green on the 'Bag-Route' - Dinesh Gupta

A humble cotton bag and even humbler, the person behind it have truly made the world move towards a greener way of life. Not with any roaring revolution, not by some aggressive moves; but with strong determination and great conviction, this 'Bag-Man' of India is taking people to betterment, driving women empowerment while doing good to mother nature.

Let's know more about Dinesh Gupta and his inspiring journey as a simple yet confident village boy to a successful entrepreneur. Let's get some insight into how his positive attitude and desire of standing out in the crowd changed the world for him and for many others as well.

Gupta always has a remarkable instinct of doing something different than others. He never wanted to be a sheep in a flock and follow others blindly. He wished and chose his own pathways. That is the reason he chose to be a computer programmer in the 80's when computers were new to India and very few people used to choose it as a career.

After spending some time in this line and after accomplishing some challenging jobs, Gupta had the thought of doing his own business. Here again, his instinct of doing something 'hatke' did not leave him alone. As he thought of Garment import-export, he didn't wish to go by the conventional and trusted route of exporting goods like ladies' garments or ethnic wear or something like that.

After a lot of brainstorming, he came up with an idea of making and exporting cotton shopping bags. Bags can be a good replacement for single-use plastic bags which is the biggest threat to the environment.

Now, even a common citizen knows about the hazards a plastic bag can cause. It is a threat to water bodies, fertile soil, mals, sea creatures, and even human lives.

However, when Gupta thought of working in this direction, this awareness was quite little. In western countries, people had started understanding the need of reducing plastic use, but in India plastic bags were sighted as a convenience and were largely popular.

Gupta could sense the need for this awareness and be determined to opt for this as his business. Gupta bagged his first order from Canada and executed it with no funds in hand but with the skill of negotiations and grit.

This was the founding moment of Sekawati Bags. This company surely takes pride in telling that Debco Bags, Canada who started working 27 years ago and, their first customer is still connected to it. This consistency is a result of quality, punctuality, and standing strong with great values.

Sekawati has an array of products like shopping bags, tiffin bags, school bags, sacks, shoe bags, packaging bags, laundry bags, and whatnot. Every product is eco-friendly, recyclable, reusable, and biodegradable; promising a greener future to our coming generations.

Yes, you can call Gupta a man of values. Businesses are for making money, but not at the cost of exploiting others. In fact, if the people involved in your business grow, your business grows more and Gupta knows it well.

He also believes that whatever you do in your life, good or bad, comes back to you in multiples. This is what we call as 'Law of Karma'. This is the reason, he can proudly say that we at Sekawati, never follow unfair practices, never disobey any rules and regulations and never create any harm to the environment by our products or by the process of making the same.

As they use 100 per cent eco-friendly natural cotton raw material and there is no water wastage in the production. On the other hand, Sekawati has supported a number of underprivileged women to make their livelihood. The company has also distributed sewing machines free of cost to make them able to work and has uplifted the lives of many families.

Especially during this pandemic, while thousands are losing their jobs and earning sources, Sekawati is strongly backing lakhs of women by providing stitching work to them at their homes. The wheel of their sewing machine continues to keep their families run smoothly. This stands by the real meng of women empowerment.

Sekawati, majorly exports its production. However, the company understands the need for increased use of biodegradable bags in our own nation. Our respected Prime Minister Narendra Modiji has also launched a nationwide initiative to stop the use of single-use plastic and in this context, single use plastic free India campaign was launched by MP CM Shivraj Singh and he not only appreciated Gupta's efforts but also tweeted from the tweeter account of his office.

Gupta is happy to go with this campaign and takes initiative in the free distribution of cotton bags and spreading awareness about the same. He has been doing this for a long now. He is connected with many orgzations dedicated to social welfare. Through these clubs, orgzations, or even independently, he often conducts such awareness drives. Moreover, he contributes to serving the homeless, poor people, providing food to the needy, and many more noble deeds.

Roots of the social work by Gupta go back to his childhood where he grew up seeing his father serving selflessly for the villagers. 'Sanskar' is an important aspect of our lives. It penetrates deep down in our persona without even knowing about it. No wonder, Gupta stood out with his incredible work in saving the environment and serving society. His silent and steady work had to get acknowledge at various platforms.

In a journey of making more than 1.5 billion bags and setting a world record in numbers, he has won the title of 'Bag Man of India' by FORBES in their recent June 2020 issue. He also has won the prestigious awards as a worldwide achievers and business leader and Rajasthan Gaurav Award in 2019.

Gupta's containment reaches to accomplishment as his wife always stood rock steady behind him and now both of his children have joined him in carrying on his legacy after completing their higher education abroad. He is undoubtedly a visionary man.

He believes that if people get cotton or eco-friendly bags easily and at cheaper rates, they will minimize the use of plastic bags. He dreams of installing bag vending machines at places where they are most needed like shops, malls, bus stands, railway stations, hospitals, etc.

Until now, with his positivity, confidence, and genuine hard efforts; Gupta has turned every dream into reality. Who knows next time when you go shopping, you will just drop a coin or to in the vending machine and get a nice Sekavati bag ready to keep your stuff. That time, please don't forget to remember this Bag Man of India and pay gratitude to him.

This story is provided by Media Dekho Inc. will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article.

( With inputs from ANI )