Mask Making Production Unit run by Women from Underprivileged Communities

COVID-19 is an emergency, on a scale we have not seen before. Till date, India has witnessed more than 26 lakh positive cases with alarming increase in the number of new cases every day.

There is a huge need to initiate action on 2 fronts – Medical and Community. Under Operation Sahaaya, Nirmaan is coordinating with various Government departments (the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of Telangana, Cyberabad Commissionerate, Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Women and Child Welfare etc.) to understand the immediate needs of the government to counter and control this situation. 

On the economic front, the pandemic has badly hit the informal sector, which comprises of almost 80% of India’s workforce, including 1/3rd of them working as casual labourers. The Covid-19 curfew has robbed daily wagers of their daily income and quickly depleting their savings. Though the Govt. has announced various schemes and relief packages to help the nation’s poor to tackle the financial difficulties during the Covid-19 outbreak, especially the migrant labourers and daily wage labourers, the need and demand for the same is much higher and immediate.

There have been lot of activities going on for the relief work, its been more than 4 months since the economy has come to a standstill. As a result, many of the families, especially those belonging to lower income strata have run out of their savings and are struggling for their very survival.

This situation again demands a proactive and aggressive action. We are reaching out to you for your support in strengthening our response to this pandemic by facilitating the livelihoods of underprivileged communities, leading to income generation for their families.

Amid the shortage of one of the most essential commodities in market right now, we have initiated a project to donate reusable facial masks for the essential public services personnel and institutional staff like the Police and Anganwadi workers who have kept the State’s critical system functional through the COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdown. We will also be donating these to the destitute, daily wage workers, vendors, and delivery personnel who play a vital role in our communities.

We have been working on the ground plan which includes raw material procurement source, Govt. permits where necessary and required training to our team. We have onboarded a public health expert to verify the process. Majority of the cloth being procured as raw material and readymade masks are purchased from the ‘Weavers Societies”, which would also support the livelihood of weavers during this hour of crisis. The stitching would be done by women students of our vocational training centers. The women will collect the materials from our centers and will be stitching at home, we will be taking all proper/ prescribed protective measures during production/ operations. Women are paid wages as per the number of masks they stitch. We aim to support each women and her family with minimum earnings of Rs. 5000 per month. And they have the scope to earn more based on their time and efforts.

The production units follow the assembly line process wherein skilled women expertly prepare masks, do quality checks and packing. The masks would then be delivered through various logistical channels to the clients. Masks will also be sold directly on e-commerce platforms to cover the huge geographical area and locally through various wholesalers and retailers to generate regular income for the women.

Through this project, we will create the following impact:

• Support 40 women and their families with decent livelihoods for next 12 months
• Provide livelihood support to 2 weavers' societies through purchase of quality cloth
• Donate masks to 1,00,000+ frontline essential service personnel and vulnerable communities for their personal protection (3 masks per person)