The purpose of Holi, a festival that marks the arrival of spring and the triumph of good over evil, has broadened over the last couple of years. The festival of colours is celebrated around the world as the mark of a new beginning with a fresh purpose. In fact, it is perceived as a festival of empowerment, one that helps drive a strong message. This year, to embark on the widespread belongingness of this festival, the tribal women of Maharashtra’s Murbad in the Thane district, have created non-toxic, natural colours. These women want to send out a strong message, emphasising the use of natural organic colours for the festival.
To help empower these women by creating employment opportunities, the Agricultural Science department of Murbad has conducted a workshop to teach them how to create organic colours from locally grown flora and fauna.
“We have conducted natural colour-making workshops in more than 20 Adivasi padas of Murbad and Saralgaon area. The women are so passionate about the workshop and got information about how to distribute these colours, thus we also had an extended workshop on the packaging,” said Asmita Tupe, Agriculture Science and Home science expert in an interview with HT.
The women have learned to make both types of dry and wet colours by using Palash tree, rose, neem leaves, turmeric, nilgiri, different flours, healthy soil and a few other materials.
“We are trying to teach our children to play with natural colours through this initiative. This is just the first year, so we will distribute the colours in the nearby areas. We have also started selling them door to door by explaining their benefits to the villagers. The materials used are easily available to us, we have formed different teams to collect, make the colours and package the materials. We sell it merely for ₹5 as it is only for the people of the villages,” remarked Shanti Pawar, a woman from the Saral village.