E-Paper
Women in UP villages back to mask-making amid Covid-19 surge
Several women self-help groups (women SHGs) in Uttar Pradesh are engaged in mask-making while some are involved in the production of sanitisers and PPE kits.
With Covid-19 infection rising with the second wave and the Uttar Pradesh government turning stricter on mask-wearing in public places, the demand for face masks has risen again. To meet the rising demand and also create livelihood, the national rural livelihood mission (NRLM) has, yet again, given the task of mask making to women in villages.
Several women self-help groups (women SHGs) are now engaged in mask-making while some are involved in the production of sanitisers and PPE (personal protection equipment) kits as well.
“Mask is considered an important tool in safety against Covid world over. Under the circumstances now, women SHGs in many districts are engaged in cotton and khadi double and terrible-layer masks. Currently, women in a total of 1,208 SHGs across the state are engaged in mask-making,” said UP state rural livelihood mission (Upsrlm) director, Sujeet Kumar, in a government statement.
Kumar said that till April 18, these 1,208 women SHGs made 9.39 lakh masks while 17 women SHGs made 1,248 PPE kits.
“We are supplying cloth, cotton and khadi, to the SHGs and also the design for the mask-making,” he said in the statement, adding, “arrangements have already been made for procurement of these masks made by the SHGs. A system has been created to make these masks available at reasonable rates to departments like health, panchayati raj, food along with the police administration.”
Talking about last year’s work, Kumar said that the women with SHGs produced 1.02 crore masks, 50,714 PPE kits and 13,675 litres of sanitiser during the first wave of the infectious disease.
Last year, during Covid-19 time, the women SHGs also worked for the distribution of ration in eleven districts (Sultanpur, Sidharthnagar, Mainpuri, Mahoba, Kanpur Nagar, Basti, Banda, Bahraich, Bagpat, Barabanki and Aligarh). At that time, more than 125 SHGs distributed ration and cooked food for the needy. Now, there is a focus on providing masks to people in villages also, the mask-making work has been stepped up, said Kumar.
