PATNA: Thousands of skilled artists in Bihar have started making face masks with Madhubani paintings designs to be sold online on Amazon. Bihar’s Darbhanga district administration is encouraging the local artists engaged in making face masks to tie up with the e-commerce giant. A number of local institutions and the Jeevika-backed Self-Help Groups (SHGs) are also involved in the process.
“The craze for Mithila masks has increased not only within the country but on foreign countries as well. Recently, I had shared a picture of a Madhubani painting face mask on my Twitter handle. I never imagined people across the world including Japan will show such massive interest in it,” Dr Thiyagrajan SM said.
The Darbhanga district magistrate got in touch with the Amazon soon and got the Mithila masks available for online sale. “Three to four institutions including the Srijan Mithila Trust and the Madhubani Paints along with around 185 SHGs of Jeevika (Bihar Rural Livelihood Promotion Society) have now started producing the face masks”, the DM said. According to the DM, 1000 to 2000 facemasks are being manufactured by the local artists daily and put for online sale.
A single piece of clinically prepared single-layer mask is sold normally at Rs 120 to Rs 150 in India, while the multi-layer type is sold at Rs 250 per piece. “But it fetches a handsome price of Rs 699 per piece on free delivery from online sale through Amazon”, Mahesh Kumar, a local Madhubani painter skilled with tailoring said.
According to the Srijan-Mithila Trust, which promotes the Mithila painting selling all over the world, the online sale of SM-95 face masks made with Mithila paintings is of high demand now because of it safety as well looks. “The credit goes to DM Darbhanga, who motivated and made such arrangement at Amazon”, Vinay Kumar, a migrant, now making the masks at Benipatti in Darbhanga said.
According to award-winning Madhubani painter Asha Jha, the face masks are easy to use and safe. It attracts new generation users even in metros because of its aesthetic appeal.
Appreciating this effort of Darbhanga district administration, Bihar minister for Water Resources Department, Sanjay Kumar Jha termed it a praiseworthy move to encourage local entrepreneurs in traditional folk arts.