Page 240 - AWSAR 2.0

216 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
Ecofriendly Dyeing: Nature’s Gifts to Save Nature
Ms. Taiyaba Ansari*
Email: taiyaba_ansari@rediffmail.com
Once I had travelled to Ujjain (Madhya Pradesh) to attend a wedding ceremony with my family. While returning my
mother and sister stopped at Bhairavgarh, a place famous for batik printing, to shop for some batik fabric. As I was not interested in buying anything, I started observing that area where every second house has a small dyeing unit. An old man sitting outside one of the shops asked me, “What are you looking for?” I replied, “Why is this place so popular?” He answered, “Bhairavgarh is famous for handmade batik dyed and printed fabrics, and there is no machinery here to perform all these tasks.” He took me to the back of a shop, where lots of workers were engaged in different processes of dyeing and printing. Strong fumes were emanating from huge pots
in which liquid dyes were bubbling. The old man informed me, “This is the dyeing process generally adopted by small industries here.” The backroom was strewn with bottles and jars of dyes and chemicals, namely, alizarin, copper sulphate, ferrous sulphate, acetic acid and caustic soda.
I was amazed and asked him, “Don’t these dyeing processes involving chemicals not affect the health of workers?” He informed me, “It causes skin irritation, itching, problem with inhalation, sore eyes, headache and permanently stained hands, but now we are used to it,” He also said, “In earlier times dyeing was done with natural colours obtained from plants, minerals and insects, these were harmless and easily available as well.” I asked him, “Why are natural dyes no longer used?”
* Ms. Taiyaba Ansari, PhD Scholar from Govt. Holkar Science College, Devi Ahilya University, Madhya Pradesh, is pursuing her research on “Eco-friendly Dyeing on Textile Material by using a Combination of Natural Mordants with Banana Pseudostem sap”. Her popular science story entitled “Eco-friendly Dyeing: Nature’s Gifts to Save Nature” has been selected for AWSAR Award.