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Heroes

Apurva Kothari uses fair trade to save farmers from suicide, and the youth from fashion blunders.I wanted to throw the snowball that would start an avalanche.” The words stick out ironically in a loft with no air-conditioning that functions as a community office in Bandra. The windows are shepherding as much of the atmospheric steam as they can.Apurva Kothari sits cool in his organic tee. Kothari is the man behind No Nasties, a T-shirt line built on fair trade and organic cotton, supporting farmers in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. These are farmer suicide belts, and in the last two years, Kothari’s business has given them reason to continue with their ancestral occupation while switching over to organic practices.He tells us that 1/3rd of the weight of a tee is thanks to chemicals. And cotton, specifically, uses 25 per cent of the world’s chemical fertilisers. Farmers, who tend to bear huge loans to buy fertilisers, build up debts when their crops fail, often due to the weakening of the soil over years of having used chemical pesticides. It’s all part of a cycle then — the weight of your tee is directly related to the technique the farmer employs.Kothari, who went through what has become the modern techie dilemma, studied technology, went toto shovel in the dollars, read about farmer suicides in his homeland (one suicide every half hour) and decided he had to help it come to a stop. He started with tweaking his lifestyle to support organic and fair trade merchandise, but found a gap in the clothing sector.In 2011, he founded No Nasties with an agenda to bring fashionable, light tees that everyone would love to wear. Chetna Organic Farmers Association, a co-operative that helps cotton farmers switch to organic methods and bag a fair price for their crop, is Kothari’s ally. Others are graphic designers who follow one simple instruction — don’t make the tee messages preachy. “We wanted to make tees that people want to buy,” says the Santacruz resident. “No green or recycle messages. We have a photograph-based range and another graphic one, besides plain ones,” he shares.The tees retail from their website (www.nonasties. in), which interestingly introduces the wearer to the various people involved in the making of each garment — farmers, ginners, spinners, weavers and tailors.As brand ambassadors, No Nasties works with cool people who care about the cause — contemporary Indian rock trailblazers Indus Creed wear their T-shirts, and the label has also designed some for electronic alternative music duo Shair ‘n’ Func.Their output is small. They manufacture out of Kolkata’s Rajlakshmi Mills which adheres to environmental standards (water-based dyes are used for printing, which means even a black tee keeps you cool in the heat), and take on small orders. To work within a like-minded community, No Nasties ships through Mirakle courier’s lowincome deaf staffers in Mumbai. The tees come in recycled tetra packs made by another NGO, RUR, and with each sale, the firm contributes to Tsunamika, an organisation that brands aid to theaffected areas of Tamil Nadu.But how much of this has helped the core cause of improving the plight of farmers? “Honestly, gauging this is very difficult,” admits Kothari, “because the government’s definition of who constitutes a farmer is loose. A woman is not classified as a farmer, neither is the family of a deceased farmer accounted for.”And yet, it’s obvious, a No Nasties tee is not just another T-shirt.No nastiesApurva Kothari, 37Helping cotton farmers bag a fair price for their crop & switch to organic farming while bringing cool, lightweight tees to the fashion-consciousAny change is possible only via market intervention. No Nasties is the interface between the consumer and the cotton, CEO, Chetna Organic, a 100% farmer-owned producers’ company that works with No NastiesPart of Mumbai Mirror’s 8th anniversary celebrations, the Heroes campaign looks beyond everyday do-gooders and simple acts of kindness. This initiative will honour people or institutions that have decisively - and positively - changed Mumbai for the better. If you know a hero, tell us about them