Trifed is proud of the fact that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, recently, purchased a toda hand woven shawl, a jute file folder and a gond painting.
The painting was made by Sarita Dhurvi from Dindori district, Samnapur Tehsil, Madhya Pradesh. Through the vibrant, earthy colours, she depicted the creation of nature. The gond tribal art, practised by the Gond tribe in Madhya Pradesh, reflect man’s close connection with the natural surroundings around him.
Equally unique was the exquisite form of embroidery practised by the Toda tribes of the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu. A pastoral community, mainly dependent on their buffalos and milk, the Todas have been living in the hills for over 3,500 years. A small community with only 1,500 members, the Todas have managed to preserve their culture and ethnicity in terms of religion and customs. For centuries, they have been wearing a single unstitched garment, which gave way to a set of two unstitched garments during the last century — a waist cloth or ‘Torp’ plus a cloak or shawl called Poothukuli. The men and women, both wore the same garments, only draped differently. But with both styles, the drape shows off the rich embroidery. The Poothukuli holds a high cultural and ceremonial significance and therefore, was embroidered. This is a handicraft form practised exclusively by women of the tribes. The Toda embroidery is now a GI tagged product and also adorns dining tableware, bed covers, bags and other merchandise, besides, of course, the shawl.
The jute file folder that the PM ordered was made by the artisans from the Santhal tribe of West Bengal. The jute folder is made out of the madhurkathi grass, abundantly available in the 24 Paragana area. The grass is usually dyed in different colours and weaved with cotton thread. The strips are then joined together with cotton which forms the folds and gives the colour to the folder.
The total cost of the three items were `3,849.60. Following the clarion call of the Prime Minister to promote women entrepreneurship, and in particular that of the tribal women, Smriti Irani, Minister for Textiles, Dr Harshvardhan, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, and Piyush Goyal, Minister of Railways, also purchased products from Tribes India website.
Smriti Irani bought a bright Kantha cotton/silk saree, handcrafted by the master craftswomen of West Bengal, while Dr Harshvardhan purchased a multicolour cotton shirt and some foxtail millets. Piyush Goyal bought a handloom woven herringbone waist coat.
Our country is home to a large number of tribes. In fact, they constitute over 8 per cent of our total population. What makes them unique is that they have retained their natural, simple ways of life, despite the hectic pace of modernisation among them. Their arts, crafts, music, dance, cuisine, all reflect a timelessness associated with their lives. Unfortunately, this also places them in the fringe and among the disadvantaged sections of the population, considering that their sources of livelihood stem from either natural forest produce or their arts, crafts and handicrafts.
Keeping in line with the clarion call of Atmanirbhar Abhiyan, among its other flagship programmes to improve the livelihoods of the tribal communities, Trifed has an exclusive marketplace for tribal producers — tribesindia.com. The Tribes India platform offers the best of tribal handicrafts and natural organic products. The Tribes India website offers a glimpse into the age-old traditions of our tribal brethren.