In the front yard of a small house in the remote Kansi village of Darbhanga district in Bihar, Nabita Jha, along with 11 women, paints Madhubani motifs on cotton masks. These are later given a coat of colour in natural dyes. A few days later, a bunch of these masks travel thousands of kilometres to cities such as Visakhapatnam, Delhi, Mumbai and Goa.
While the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc on the livelihoods of traditional craftspersons, for Ms. Nabita and other Madhubani artists it has opened up a new channel of earning. Their Madhubani motif masks have become a rage on social media. Several noted personalities such as industrialist Anand Mahindra and actors like Raveena Tandon have tweeted about these masks.
Shifted base
Following the lockdown, Ms. Nabita and her family were forced to move out of their base in Delhi to their village in Bihar after all sources of income dried up. In keeping with the need of the hour, she decided to use her artistic talent to fashion face masks.
She is the daughter of Madhubani artist Baua Devi, a Padma Sri awardee. Ms. Baua was part of a pioneering generation of Madhubani artists, who transferred their artistry from the wall to paper and was known for her unique style of mythological narrative paintings. “My mother has been my guiding force from my childhood. Even today I derive my strength from her,” says Ms. Nabita, over a telephonic chat from her village.
Marketing issues
She heads a women-led group called Bhagavati Jeevika who are churning out several beautiful three-layered cotton masks with hand-painted designs. However, they faced one problem - to market the product to a wider audience.
“We received support from some people from Visakhapatnam and Delhi who reached out to us to help market our masks,” says Govind, Nabita’s son.
Visakhapatnam-based Sonia Gupta, who runs a boutique store, came as a support for them. “We recently got the first batch of masks from them that are available at our store,” Ms. Sonia Gupta says.
According to Ms. Nabita, the face masks have an aesthetic appeal and attracts new generation users.