Kanpur :
Nineteen-year-old Meena Kumari can now make a moonj basket on her own. She also dreams to be an entrepreneur and revive the dying art of weaving Moonj baskets from grass. Sahana, a moonj craftsperson, wants awareness about this form though her children do not wish to follow the family tradition.
Meena and Sahana’s dreams are fired by a bunch of students of IIT-Kanpur students who are helping them in various ways under an MHRD initiative to revive this famous craft form of Uttar Pradesh, products made of wild grass called “moonj.”
And, as the institute gets immersed in its annual fest – Antaragni – Meena and many practitioners of the art proudly display their skills at a stall on the campus.
Meena was trained in less than three months by students associated with the research lab under IIT-K’s master of design programme.
“Moonj products are simple but attractive and eco-friendly,” said Meena, who studied computer science from an ITI, as she sat knotting the grass in spirals at the stall on Friday.
Naini, a village on the banks of Yamuna in Allahabad, is a major producer of moonj. Moonj and kasa are types of wild grass that grow on the banks of the Yamuna. The grass are found in abundance along the air strip in Kanpur too.
“Moonj is the outer layer of a type of grass called ‘sarpat.’ This layer is peeled off and knotted as it is easy to store and dry. These knots are locally known as ‘balla’. Kaasa grass is dried and wrapped with moonj grass by rolling around kaasa. The motifs of basketry are created by adding colored grass (after dyeing the original grass) in between,” said trainers Pooja Mishra and Jyoti Bahadur of IIT-K.
Nearly 90% of womenfolk in Naini are involved in moonj basket making. “I am making moonj products since four decades. But, my kids do not want to do this as they do not find this lucrative. I am happy that awareness about this craft is growing which will lead to people coming forward to get this form into the mainstream,” said Sahana, a moonj craftsperson from Naini.
Textile designer Neelam Gupta (28) left her job in Delhi to learn moonj craft. “I have seen my mother work on moonj craft since I was six. However, she could not continue as she had myopia and nobody from our family took interest in this craft form. When I got to know about this project, I decided to leave my job and work for reviving moonj craft,” said Neelam.
Moonj coiled grass products are used as containers, food storage devices, coasters and wall decorators. “Moonj craft also has traditional significance as the products are gifted to women in ritual functions and weddings,” said Pooja. Recent additions are cooker cover, bowl stand, glass cover, and cutlery box.
Project in-charge, Koumudi Patil who is a faculty of humanities and social sciences at IIT-K, said: “We are working to develop the community by looking into their frugal technology to promote moonj craft right at the grassroot level. The project aims to take the craft to the mainstream. Artisans will be engaged with the design process as well as entrepreneurship training so that they can earn their own livelihood.”
Besides, students at IIT-K who are part of the project are devising a mechanism to upgrade the technology in order to increase production. “The manual process is time consuming. At times, it takes weeks to design a moonj product. We are trying methods, which can be used in needle movement for knotting the spirals so that the products are masterly crafted. To create a space in the market, we need to increase production without affecting employment,” said Mohit Soni, final year mechanical engineering student involved in the project.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Isha Jain, TNN / October 11th, 2014
