At Indulge, we have been highlighting the founders from various walks of life, who have been doing their bit to pitch in and make the effect of the pandemic easier for as many people as they can. Some of them have also been using their social platforms to highlight several realities to generate awareness.
Ilamra, a Hyderabad-based design label, used its Instagram page in several did exactly that by highlighting the COVID-19 situation in a remote villages. The sisters who helm the label, Yashila and Trishala Nara, were in touch with a third-generation Kalamkari practitioner Varun Pitchuka, at Pedana in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh for work when the pandemic situation escalated quickly. They also used their brand’s Instagram page to highlight how the village managed to contain cases, claim the sisters. The sisters got to know about the stories from Pedna because of their production timeline, but instantly thought it would be useful to convey how a small village can contain cases by shutting borders and going in for a voluntary lockdown.
And they felt the rest of India, people especially living in urban areas could have benefitted from this knowledge. “Since there isn’t a lot of focus among the national consciousness, about the COVID realities in rural India, we wanted to highlight how this small village zoomed into action, and contained cases,” says Yashila, adding that they wanted to highlight what’s happening in rural india and and also show the world how a tiny little village community of weavers can effectively contain the rise of cases.
“Although the wedding season is on, the weavers, artisans and the jewellery makers decided to shut shops to contain the spread of COVID. There are several connected units who were gearing up for trosseaus, but production was halted voluntarily,” chimes in Trishala.
Ilamra is looking to increase more awareness with posters, written in Telugu and regional languages that can make all the difference. And they are in touch with the community to understand the developments!