Yesterday in my blog, I wrote about schools being conducting online classes for all the students. In today’s news paper there is a news item which mentions that Karnataka state has banned online classes for the students studying from Lower KG to 5th standard (primary school students) across all the boards. They have also set up a committee comprising of educationists, health experts, child psychologists and other stakeholders on this issue, committee has to propose how students can be engaged in the future. The committee has to submit the report in 10 days, and focus on modalities for online classes for students studying from class 6th to 12th, including the amount of screen time permitted for each age group. The govt’s contention is ‘online classes cannot replace physical classes. Not everyone has access to tools for digital education. There has to be need for consensus on screen time’.
In my opinion Karnataka govt’s intentions are in right directions, regarding online education and hope it bears fruitful outcome.
In the other topic of the day is “ THE BENEFITS OF WEARING NATURAL FABRICS”
Our country is defined by the image of father of nation Gandhiji weaving on a Charkha. The Khadi clothes he used to wear through the fabric weaved through the charkha soon become a synonym of a politician’s image in our country. However after independence, people have drifted away from hand woven clothes, due to artificial fabrics promoted by foreign companies. Most of the fabric used in the clothes, that we purchase nowadays are machine woven, which works out cheaper, and better and easier to manage and shape into multiple clothes.
The benefits of wearing natural fabrics especially for a tropical country like ours are many. When you wear cotton, linen, silk, wool, etc and that too if hand woven and come as khadi or handloom, then you are wearing organic fibres, which are also woven organically and they have many benefits.
Cotton– It has a soft texture and feels good against your skin, and it also has breathable nature. Because of cellulose nature, it possesses good strength, and hence it is durable even after multiple washes ( either by hand or machine), and it absorbent also. This means that cotton when used in regions where there is sweating, then also it will be easier on the skin, as compared to synthetic fabric. You must have noticed that handloom sarees and bed sheets are available across India, with every region having its own specialities. Many young designers slowly turning to handloom and khadi are helping to revive these fabrics and making it fashion symbol.
Linen– It is also highly absorbent and also keeps the heat in, which is why it is used more in winter or the colder regions. Also, it can resist high temperatures easily and is not easily stained. Hence it is easily washed, even in machines. In fact the more you wash, the softer it becomes and it is also stronger than cotton. The best part is linen also comes with antibacterial and antiseptic properties, hence it is good on skin. It is also used in bandages, mainly due to its properties. Linen is made from natural fibre of the flax plant and is highly popular because it literally last decades. Linen is machine woven as well, the hand woven linen is actually stronger, crispier and slightly heavier initially, than the machine woven ones. Hand woven linen sarees are a rage now, even among the young crowd.
Silk– It is luxurious , pleasing to the eye and also easy on skin, and it is also highly absorbent. As it absorbs sweats, it allows skin to breathe naturally and also dries faster. It is natural fibre, which is obtained from the cocoons of larvae of silkworms.. You may not know that silk is actually an all climate fibre, it keeps you warm in winter and cool in summer. You may have heard about the special silk sarees coming from various parts of India like Kanchivaram, Muga silk, Mysore silk, Chanderi, Paithani, Banarasi and more. The best part is silk is hand woven using looms and it is actually wonderful to watch the weavers create intricate, beautiful designs using their looms, it is a laborious effort though, which gives the justification about the cost of fabric.
Wool– Wool is another natural fibre, which is obtained from the sheep or other animals. These are also hand woven and made into fabric, rugs and much more. Wool is manly used in cold climate, because of its heating effect. Wool may feel itch and scratchy, certain wool may feel nice and soft. Shawls, scarves, sweaters and rugs are made from wool, which also offers breathability, temperature regulation, and antimicrobial properties.
The problem is the use of hand woven fabrics are slowly dying, the machine woven fabrics are available in plenty and they are much cheaper. India has 95% of world’s hand woven fabrics. 15% of India’s fabric production is covered by hand woven sector, which employs almost 47 lakh people. Apart from health benefits that we derive from wearing hand woven natural fabrics, each of these is like a masterpiece crafted in a unique way, unlike the machine woven stuff. By choosing to wear hand woven, we choose to wear healthy clothes, help the environmental cause, invest wisely as these are durable and will also help the livelihood of all those workers who are working in this sector, and will encourage others to save a rich cultural tradition as well as.
Waiting for your feed backs/comments/views.
Anil Malik
Mumbai, India
11th June 2020
R. N. Mungale.
I agree with Mr. Malik.