Upasana makes masks using dye with medicinal herbs

A team of workers drawn from nearby villages engaged in making masks

The reusable mask made by Upasana using dye with medicinal herbs.

Auroville-based unit Upasana has tweaked its clothing output to produce eco-friendly masks to contain the spread of novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

The Upasana Design Studio, creators of the “Tsunamika gift dolls” that spawned a gift economy across the world after the 2004 tsunami, has come out with two variants of the masks to make a contribution during the COVID-19 pandemic.

These re-suable masks (

www.healingmask.org ) complement other preventive measures of hand washing, sanitisers and social distancing. “We were inspired to produce masks by the global shortage of personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 crisis,” said Uma Prajapati, founder of Upasana.

Upasana hopes that once more masks go into the supply chain, there would be enough medically approved masks for doctors and health-care providers.

The masks, produced by the villagers in rural communities adjoining Auroville, which has been engaged in livelihood and empowerment activities through Upasana since its inception in 1997, come with an in-built protective layering as they are made using textiles dyed with medicinal herbs.

Upasana's masks were included in the resource directory of the COVID-19 Task Force. Several orders and enquiries had poured in from across India and abroad, including from the U.S., at its online portal.

“We have kept the packages ready and hope to begin shipments once the lockdown is lifted. Our priority, of course, will be to serve domestic demand,” Ms. Prajapati said.

Upasana has engaged about 30 women and a few men for mask production. They work from their homes producing over 1,000 masks every day and this capacity is scalable. The unit has tasked a person with distributing the raw material to homes and doing the collection part each day. A local supply chain has been functioning on a limited scale with a health volunteer delivering supplies in and around Auroville and Puducherry.

The masks are in two variants — the silver grid mask and the neem mask — each priced at ₹100.

According to Upasana, since ancient times, silver has been used as an anti-pathogenic, cleansing and energizing agent. This mask is made with a special textile woven with a grid of silver thread which creates an energetic protection field around the wearer’s head. Through its air-ionizing action, the grid also reinforces the immune system by eliminating the positive charge of harmful free radicals in the air we breathe.

The other variant is made from neem, which is well-known for its detoxifying, anti-allergenic and calming properties. While neem’s natural dye gives this mask’s organic hand-woven cotton its characteristic yellow colour, it also carries this amazing plant’s ayurvedic all-healing properties right into the mask’s fabric.