Around 88,000 Self Help Group (SHGs) women across the country have emerged as community warriors to help contain the spread of deadly Covid-19. These “unsung” warriors are doing their bits by producing masks, Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) and lakhs of litres of hand sanitisers day and night for frontline staff as well as countless citizens.
Some of them have also produced liquid soaps to help in keeping hand hygiene as the country grapples to check the deadly contagion. There are approximately 690 lakh women members of around 63 lakh Self Help Groups (SHGs) across the country.
As the masks are the first line of defence against COVID-19 and the Government has made mandatory wearing masks in public places, 78,373 SHG members under the Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) of the Union Ministry of Rural Development have taken upon themselves to produce 1.96 crore masks besides other safety gears.
These are various categories of masks, including 2-3 ply woven and non-woven surgical masks, cotton masks, etc, which adhere to the advisories of Union Health Ministry and Ministry of Consumers’ Affairs.
SHG members have now also started making PPE like aprons, gowns, face shields, said an official from the Union Rural Development Ministry.
“Around 78,373 SHG members are presently involved in manufacturing of masks. Jharkhand SHGs were among the first to respond and have produced about 78,000 masks since March 22, 2020. These masks were being sold at the premises of various district collectorates and subsidised medical stores at an affordable price of Rs 10,” said the officer.
From the country’s eastern region, 853 SHGs involving 2516 rural women of Chhattisgarh, have supplied thousands of masks, while in Odisha, SHGs have manufactured more than a million masks for distribution of among common people.
In Andhra Pradesh, 2254 groups of 13 sub-blocks of the district have followed the guidelines of government for the manufacturing of cloth face masks.
Similarly, Karnataka rural self-help groups have produced 1.56 lakh face masks just in 12 days.
Northern Goa district rural development agency through the help of SHGs has supplied 2,000 masks across the State. To cater the increased demand of masks, Himachal Pradesh SHGs with 2000 women members are producing masks.
Similarly, SHG members are also manufacturing PPE including aprons, gowns, face shields etc. Around 5000 PPE kits have been manufactured so far by SHGs in various States including Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Karnataka.
Punjab SRLM reported supply of 500 aprons to Civil Surgeon, Kapurthala while Meghalaya reported supply of 200 face shields to district Medical Health officer. Karnataka reported production of 125 face shields. SRLMs of Meghalaya, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab have reported production of face shields, gowns by the SHG members.
The officer further said the micro-enterprises supported by DAY-NRLM have taken up the production of hand sanitisers and hand wash products to ensure the availability in rural areas.
Around 900 SHG enterprises in 9 States have produced 1.15 lakh litres of sanitisers with the production in the three States of Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh exceeding 25,000 litres each.
Similarly, around 900 SHG enterprises located across the States of Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Kerala, Manipur, Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Mizoram are producing sanitisers to feed soaring demand, the officer added.