BENGALURU: With a background in textile designing and working with tribal artisans of Northeast India for over a decade, Smitha Murthy founded The ANTS (Action Northeast Trust) Craft in Indiranagar.
Murthy along with CEO of The Ants Craft, Sridhar Srigiriraju, works on development issues and showcasing the handlooms and crafts, mainly of the Northeast. Though their focus has primarily been on making these artisans self-sufficient, providing designs and helping them market their products, their experience with block printing artisans at the Hubli Hospital for Handicapped (HHH), made them take on a bigger task.
“As part of our work with the local artisans around the country, we came across challenges faced by block printing artisans at the HHH, mostly leprosy patients and burn victims. We realised that their lack of precision and poor grip due to deformity of hands and weight of or pressure on the block was affecting their productivity. Deliveries were becoming a problem and we couldn’t really put any pressure on them to meet the demand,” says Murthy. That’s how the idea for the Assistive Block Printing Device for the physically challenged, which can be used in the traditional art, was born.
They were are working with the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross, Geneva), which aims to create affordable assistive devices and sustainable livelihoods for the physically challenged in rural areas. While Murthy along with Srigururaju presented their idea at the ICRC’s ‘Enable Makethon’ campaign, techie Prabhu Govindarajan, student/entrepreneur Abhinav Dey and CEO Nitin Bawsay came on board with their individual skillsets to turn this idea into reality. The team ‘Global Hands’ took about two months to develop this prototype, which got shortlisted among the top ten teams for the campaign’s global incubation program.
“Once the results were out on January 23 this year, we got an order for 35 machines,” adds Murthy. They are targeting NGOs in India working on rural livelihood solutions. The prototype called LokJeevika enables the block to align properly for the perfect design on the fabric and the pressure exerted by a motor driven hammer, hence eliminating the discomfort caused to the user (since they do not need to bear the weight of the block). But it has been designed in such a way that it doesn’t make the nature of work purely mechanical.
“The device keeps the artisan at the centre of the picture, enhancing the therapeutic value of block printing. We want to ensure that they have job satisfaction.” This device also helps greatly in training newbies in block printing. It makes the whole process less labour intensive, thereby attracting more people to take up block printing as a sustainable employment option.
LokJeevika has accuracy sensors, which shows a yellow light when the block is not aligned on the fabric (after dipping in the ink tray) and turns green when properly aligned. It also has a hydraulic system for pressure management. It significantly reduces idle time during block printing, by having the ink tray attached to the device. The pressure sensor on LokJeevika records pressure exerted by the user and machine-learning algorithm adjusts the pressure needed for the press of the block. The final product has a simple design and is aimed at wider engagement for the leprosy affected and those with burns, polio, cerebral palsy, autism and any loco-motor disease. Once dissembled, the device can also be easily packed into a suitcase and will cost less than Rs.15,000 (even cheaper, once they scale up operations). The team is currently doing field trials globally and once the prototype is further developed, they are planning to do demos for various local NGOs working in the sector.
How Does LokJeevika Help?
Easy to use
What is Wood Block Printing?
Wood block printing on textiles is the process of printing patterns by means of incised wood blocks.
Who Benefits?
252 million unemployed people affected with loco-motor disabilities in Indian rural areas.