Gandhigram Trust - Natural Dye Unit

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Providing Service, Building Strength & Creating Knowledge for Rural Communities through Gandhian Constructive Programme

VILLAGE INDUSTRIES>Natural Dye Unit		Training in Printing Natural Dyes Shade Card Women working in natural dye unit Top
Natural Dye Unit	India was one of the leaders in the knowledge and practice of natural dye for textiles before the advent and eventual domination of synthetic dyes. Madras patna was the name given to some of the traditional colours that were exported from the southern part of the country. Particularly red, blue and yellow natural dyes were dominated by the Indian manufacturers. However, with the advent of the synthetic dyes, the knowledge and the practice of extracting and application of natural dyes was lost except in few communities in India.
The Natural Dye Unit at Gandhigram is an effort to revive the knowledge of natural dyes amongst the rural artisans, village textile workers and also create an industry around the knowledge of natural dyes. Started with extraction and application of 4 dyes in 1987, the unit today boasts of an impressive 150 shades of natural dye colours completely standardised based on more than one raw material. These colours have been standardised for application in cotton, silk (about 100 shades) and woollen (40 shades). The unit concentrates on research, documentation and training in natural dyes. It also undertakes production of natural dye based cotton textiles. Research in non-textile fabrics through this unit has seen success with natural dye application for paper, palm leaf, candles, jute, coir, banana fibre and korah mats. Apart from the natural dyes, the natural bleaching process has been standardised here. Current research is also on in natural dyes for leather products and environmental friendly tanning method for leather. Currently, research also concentrates on how to prolong the shelf life of natural dyes. The centre also researches on alternate raw material to produce similar colour effect, this is to provide with localised plants that could produce similar colour effect in any part of India rather make practitioners depend on extract from exotic plants. A herbarium of 80 plants has been set-up with its colour properties. Currently, the centre is working on creating a "Plant Passport Data" in which 200 dye plants will be profiled. Training on utilising natural dyes instead of synthetic dye has been given by Sri. Bharathan, who heads the neural dye unit in various parts of Tamilnadu and across India and also a few European countries. Series of workshops have been held in Bihar, Uttaranchal, Kutch in Gujarat, Andhra and Bhubhaneshwar in Orissa. Training has been also given for korah mat weavers on using natural dyes in Pathamadai in Tamilnadu, Jute products manufacturers in Calcutta and in Nepal. Training in Natural Dye - Expert level is provided in-house for a 1-year period (so far about 60 people have gone through training programme). A short term 6-month training programme is also given as an EDP programme (61 people have been trained). The centre also provides off campus training for any interested groups with a minimum of 50 candidates participating (872 have been trained through off-campus programme till now). Natural dyed yarn and textiles are sold in India through the Khadi units and also abroad. Currently, export job works are undertaken for sale in Italy, France and Japan. The Centre for Documentation, Research and Training which is set-up as part of the Natural Dye unit is a model for all of south India.