Busy Hands Help Fight The Pandemic

SHGs and prisoners in Himachal Pradesh are stitching masks/PPEs, and making sanitisers

- Sarita Brara

Till early last month, members of the Vishwa Karma Self-Help Group (SHG) in Palkwah village of Haroli Block in Himachal Pradesh’s Una district were making shopping bags. Today, their sewing machines are working overtime to stitch face masks required to prevent droplet infection in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sonia Diwan, who leads a team of about 10 women here, says they are devoting as much time as they can spare from farming activities and their household chores to meet the escalating demand for masks. On average, each SHG member produces between 50 and 100 masks a day. “We are receiving ₹4 to ₹5 for stitching a three-layered mask with the material provided by the government.”

Though Diwan and the others admit that money is an incentive, “the fact that the whole exercise is for the benefit of society gives us an added satisfaction” they say.

Vishwa Karma is not the only SHG on the task, 250 self-help groups in several districts of the State have also been roped into making masks. The SHGs have already stitched 1.5 lakh masks and are on the way to completing an order of 2 lakh masks.