Manipur Artisan Makes Lotus Silk, The World's Rarest And Most Exclusive Fabric
The pristine pink Lotus flower that emerges from the mud without stains is often viewed as a symbol of purity. But, did you know, that this beautiful flower is also a source of the rarest type of silk in the world? Lotus silk is considered a highly exclusive fibre and is extracted by only a few expert craftspersons across the world. One of them is Bijayshanti Tongbram from Thanga Tongbram village of Manipur.
Bijayshanti Tongbram from Thanga Tongbram village of Manipur lives a few kilometers away from one of India's largest freshwater lakes, the Loktak lake. Loktak lake is a source of livelihood for thousands of fishermen, but this lake is also famous for Lotuses, blooming on the surface of the lake for as far as the eyes can see.
Bijayshanti Tongbram spins yarn from the stems of the lotus plant to create silk fabric. The idea came to Bijayshanti in the year 2014, while she was studying botany. Since then, she wanted to learn about aquatic plants, especially the plant habitat of Loktak lake, and how to utilise it to make a product of utility.
Bijayshanti leaves for Loktak lake early in the morning, to collect the lotus in her country boat. She carefully chooses the stem and the flower that can be used to extract the fibre. The fibre has to be extracted while the stem is still wet, or it breaks. And so Bijayshanti harvests the stems every day.
Today, this young entrepreneur has not only opened avenues for employment in rural areas but has also established herself in an untapped market. Currently, 30 women work for her organisation. Several women extract fibre at their homes and give her the fabric which she uses to stitch scarves and neckties.
NDTV in partnership with Luminous has launched an awareness campaign ‘Be A Bijli Donor’ to promote the idea of ‘save power for more power’. The idea is to conserve energy today in order to get more power tomorrow.
We inherently know that saving energy results in low energy bills, but we also need to understand that a unit of energy saved today makes it available for people still living in the dark or facing regular power cuts.
Saving power or conserving energy is about knowing the sources of energy, and areas of wastage and thereby eliminating these through technology and lifestyle changes. For instance, a 100 W (Watt) incandescent (ICL) bulb can be replaced with a 9 W LED bulb offering similar performance in terms of light output, but at far lower consumption of energy.
While a 100 W ICL bulb, used for four hours a day, consumes 146 units of energy per year, a 9 W LED bulb requires only 13.5 units per year. Clearly, switching to LED is a smart choice as it provides the same output while consuming 90 per cent less energy.
The focus of the campaign is to instill the idea of ‘save power for more power’ and in order to do so, the initiative will create awareness about energy efficient products and services, smart ways to reduce power consumption, alternate sources of energy like solar energy and the need to conserve energy. The idea is to address the rising need for energy conservation in India.
As part of the campaign, we will highlight the stories of individuals and organisations who are championing the cause of energy conservation by switching to renewable sources of energy, adopting innovations to reduce energy consumption while enjoying the same output. The initiative will provide a platform for all stakeholders to share their ideas and work towards the common goal of, ‘Save power for more power’.