Making tribal textile wearable and affordable
Padma Charan Majhi is an Assistant Professor at National Institute of Fashion Technology, Bhubaneshwar. He is a graduate in Textile Design from National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kolkata. In the past he has worked under enterprises like Mahajan Overseas (Panipat), and Director of Textiles, Handloom and Handicraft, Government of Odisha. He has been a part of many projects related to Odisha handicraft and handloom. He is a Co-founder of a textile brand called ‘Jo Baha’. The brand deals with tribal textiles as well as other textiles of Odisha. The products are sold at retail stores in Odisha and on online platforms. Further, he and his team is planning to do the same for textiles of Jharkhand.
Since most tribal textiles are mostly worn occasionally, Padma is passionate to make tribal textiles a part of contemporary fashion. For him, design is a channel to make something functional as well as aesthetic and has to serve as a solution. His visit to villages studying the handicraft and handloom communities, their work and the progress achieved compelled him to be invested in academics. In the context of tribal textiles, he has observed a decline in the number of handloom weavers in villages of Mayurbhanj in Odisha. He emphasises on the loss of ‘ritual textile’, a textile which used to be made following fasting or a cultural celebration. The ritual textiles of indigenous communities have been replaced by powerloom textiles available in the market. There is a need to revive these ritual textiles and create contemporary textiles simultaneously.
Padma utilises the research and product development courses offered to students in NIFT to carry out projects in villages. He was instrumental in convincing the authorities to allow students to do the research and product development while staying in the Mayurbhanj with weaving communities. The products made by the students went to many exhibitions and won many awards. Instalment of double sized looms has created opportunities for the weavers to produce more products.
A proponent of traditional textile, Padma believes in making tribal textiles wearable and affordable after some modifications. Currently, Padma is heading a silk based handloom project in NIFT Bhubaneswar that is a collaboration between Central Silk Board, Director of Textile and NIFT Bhubaneswar.
In the past Padma has worked on a project with the Central Silk Board wherein the products were exhibited both at national and international platforms. He emphasises on the need for the continuity of a project so as to ensure livelihood opportunities. He wishes to document and research on tribal handicrafts so as to make it popular and also generate livelihoods. His subjects in college include is Hardcore Design Process. As a professor he focuses on the objective of every student with respect to a project. He has worked on almost all the textiles and crafts of Odisha. In the past he has headed the ‘Fani Project’ where corporate gifts were designed using Pattachitra paintings of Odisha.