Turning Waste into Means: Human Hair Business in a West Bengal Village

Abstract

The present study is a part of an ongoing research conducted on human hair business at a rural-level entrepreneurship run by the people living in Lohabarh village under Bhagwanpur-1 Block in Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, India. This business is also found in many other villages of this administrative block. It deals with the fallen hair tangles which serve as the main raw materials collected from different rural and urban areas of West Bengal. The products like hair wigs or hair extensions are sold in national and international markets through local and foreign traders or through online platforms. Therefore, a large network of business organizations is involved in the whole process. The study aims to know the process of turning the waste into reusable product along with the exploration of the nature of business organization and to understand the networks connected to international market from such a rural-level entrepreneurship so that the local and global interaction is realized in this context. The study reveals how people do this work at the village level and how it is circulated outside the village. It has enquired about the people involved and the extent of dividends contributing to their economic prosperity. It is revealed that a group of economically backward people had an occupational shift to this work, and it helped them to uplift their economic conditions considerably.