Repair Cafe: Bengaluru Brings Repair and Reuse Back in Fashion

The cafe encourages repair and reuse, and is an eco friendly initiative by two women in the city.

Bengaluru’s Repair cafe’ is a one-stop shop for people who need objects repaired. (Photo: The News Minute)

Modelled on the Repair Café Foundation in Amsterdam, Purna Sarkar and Antara Mukherjee’s initiative in Bengaluru is a one-stop shop for people who need objects repaired, those who can offer the services, and those who might simply want to learn.

In Indian society, repairing is a virtue lost with the advent of consumerism. It is a dying skill and in this urban bias, repairers are marginalised. We feel it is time that we rewind our culture ethos.

Purna Sarkar

For the Environmentally Conscious

Purna Sarkar has conducted five workshops all over the city to encourage repair. (Photo: The News Minute)

Having conducted five workshops across the city since her first one in November 2015, Purna has found that one of the biggest challenges is that a tech-savvy generation is unwilling to repair and reuse.

The Repair Café’s underlying premise is that reusing as a strategy impacts the environment less than recycling, which consumes energy.

People’s orientation has shifted from simple processes that can reduce the burden of high energy consumption on the economy. The focus, in her opinion, should again be on repairs, in place of recycling. Not reusing items has given way to resource illiteracy where neither practical knowledge nor preservation of resources is valued.

Of, For and By The People

The Repair Cafe’, Bengaluru is modelled on the Repair Café Foundation in Amsterdam. (Photo: The News Minute)

The Repair Café has a workshop where handymen, volunteers and visitors can gather to repair household items. The handymen are professionals from Bengaluru’s repair markets who are passionate about their profession.

They are sourced from our repair database. We select them upon the feedback given by their customers.

So, what lies in store for the Repair Café?

We are looking to conduct more workshops in Bengaluru this year and encourage and support communities till they start their own Repair Cafes. It’s an initiative of the people, by the people and for the people.

Repairers, volunteers and visitors can gather to repair household items. (Photo: The News Minute)

No Profit, No Loss and Crowd Funding

Repairs are priced between Rs 40 and Rs 200. Operating on a no-profit no-loss system, the workshop budgets are kept low by working with waste material available in the environment. The café is also looking at crowd funding their project, through the online platform Ketto. According to the campaign, one can donate Rs 1,000 towards the cause and avail repairs worth the amount.