Our Story
A social enterprise that brings together women empowerment and planet gentle cleaning options
An Interesting Story to Begin With...
Our story is interesting. HTHTF was founded by Priya Rajaram, a Chartered Accountant, who, after two decades in a consulting firm wanted to do something in the social and sustainable space. She quit the corporate world at the peak of her career, solely driven by the conviction that she could possibly do something of better worth with her time.
In her words, “I worked in the corporate space for two decades and was in a high-flying career I totally loved although it was all-consuming. At the back of my mind, I always had a plan B to do something in the social, sustainable space but was so much engrossed in the flow of daily life and its demands that it just getting kept getting pushed under the carpet. Luckily for me an alarm bell in the form of my annual health check-up shook me up and egged me to follow a more balanced and sustainable way of life. I decided to call it a goodbye to corporate slavery and mulled over what I wanted to really do in life. I decided to spend my time between setting up a social enterprise and writing. I thought about how I could achieve both sustainability goals and contribute to society, and Hands Together – Hearts Together Foundation was born last year. The first brand of sustainable, plant based home cleaning products – The Clever Nut is inspired by the amazing soapnut which never fails to surprise us with its magical versatility.
We have had a roaring response so far to our products and look forward to the exciting journey ahead!! We started off with employing women in bastis around our apartment. Most of these women had lost their jobs or maybe their spouses had lost their jobs and they couldn’t afford to provide education to their children. They were mostly working as house-help and wanted a job that will provide them security, and we wanted them to understand there can be life beyond working as house help. They mostly know to read and write basics and this is a good refresher for them. They finish off their house help jobs and then come over in the later part of the day to work with us. Initially they would seem bogged down by the amount of sudden knowledge that contrasted with the routine mechanical tasks they were accustomed to doing. But soon they became adept, started taking notes, asking questions, and do all kinds of jugaad to get the work done. Their positive attitude to work validated our belief a thousand times over – that given a platform and the right enablers, women will rock, no matter what.
When we expanded to Bangalore, we had a great opportunity in front of us and I’d say it has worked well for us so far given we are entering into this amazing landscape of organic stores. While Pune nurtured the tiny baby that was HTHTF, providing it a protected environment to stumble and fall and yet pick itself up, Bangalore has been pushing us to strive harder and explore our limits. Today our products are on major shelves of Pune’s super speciality chain of stores, Dorabjees. We are working on our supply chain in Bangalore and fine-tuning mechanisms to educate customers about our brand. We also retail online through Amazon, Instagram and The Good Thing Store – an online platform for eco-friendly products. Our vision is to achieve three objectives – 1. To provide employment to underprivileged women and empower them to raise their standard and quality of life, 2. To provide plant based sustainable cleaning options to urban educated consumers and help them make a thoughtful choice in choosing products that are gentle on themselves and the planet, and 3. To channelize the profits of the enterprise to the welfare of street children, and enable them to break the cycle of begging on the streets.”
Typical days in our space
Nilu alias Nilavati - Pune production lead
Valli - Bangalore production lead
