A Life Guard in Times of Corona Virus: Face Masks Made by Sakhi Women

Manjari Corner

Business Sakhi training conducted under the Capri project at Kishanganj, Baran. Pulse processing unit inaugurated in Madavra Lalitpur in the presence of SDM Chandra Bhushan. New Production house inaugurated in Nurabad, Muraina (MP), in collaboration with JK Tyres. Insightful interactions between members of Bindi International and our production sakhis during recent field visit to Badabanda & Kankarda Village (Baran) Community Awareness Camp organized in 8 new villages in association with UN Women under 'Build Back Better' project. Goat Farmers Training conducted at Jara and Dangdiroli (Seondha) with KVK scientists. Training and animal feed distribution program organized at the Manjari office in Sarmathura, for 100 scheduled tribe goat farmers. Manjari wins the 'Excellence in CSR and sustainability award for women empowerment, at the 10th National CSR Leadership Congress & Awards.

A Life Guard in Times of Corona Virus: Face Masks Made by Sakhi Women

Jun 14, 2023

Sakhi women made 1.50 lacs in a short period of one month during the COVID-19 pandemic, helped thousands of persons in getting quality masks, and contribute to their family income

Story Highlights

More than 2 lacs masks were produced in just one month and are being distributed in nearby communities through the Sakhi project

This generated over 5000 individual workdays so far.
The mission was no one without masks in their surroundings.
As per our report by the team, 2.5 million INR revenue was generated by Sakhi Women.

Rajasthan is a very colorful state with a vibrant community, those who are always very strong and ready to tackle any challenge. 1/3 of the state always faces natural disasters like drought, floods, harsh weather, etc. every year. But this year is very different from others, C19 brought a very unique and unprecedented challenge. Most of the things stopped due to the lockdown.

Many people have lost their jobs, mostly enterprises are hit adversely. According to McKinsey, the hardest hit sectors may not recover till 2021, Live mint said that the Indian economy will contract by 5% in FY21, ICRA told India’s GDP like to grow 2% in FY21, and Business Today also reported that the unemployment rate rises to 26% during the lockdown, with more than 100 Mn jobs at risk.

Like every place, Chittorgarh is also faced with a real dearth of masks in markets. As various studies suggested Mask is a new vaccine for coronavirus. In that scenario mask was a must for all of us. Challenges always bring opportunities as well. When most people were locked in their houses Sakhi women come forward as a corona warrior who started the production of masks on a large scale. Sakhi women produced over 200000 masks. They have taken care of all possible safety measures.

Assema Bano one of the Sakhi women told us that she has made 100 masks per day. That helped me to earn 15000 in one month during the time of lockdown. There are many Sakhi women who worked tirelessly to produce quality masks. Rekha a confident Sakhi corona warrior reported that she and her Sakhi produced 5000 masks in a single day. This was our social responsibility to make available masks to all members so that we can beat the coronavirus.

Challenge Accepted: Technology Enabled To Mass Production

This initiative generated wages for 100 Sakhi women who produced 1.5 lacs masks and earned livelihoods for them. This brilliant solution leverages all possible local resources. Preeti Yadav a designer at Sakhi Centre proudly shared that she has trained all Sakhi women in a very short span of time. She has developed a good video on how to make masks and circulated all members. She helped them to get all the latest knowledge’s how to produce masks.

Distribution of Masks and Awareness Campaign These masks were distributed in 174 villages and surrounding towns (Ajmer, Baran, Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Dholpur, Jaisalmer Rajsmand, Udiapur, Uddham Singh Nagar) in 5 districts. Sakhi women Federations collectives of Self Help Groups (SHGs) lead this distribution drive along with teams. The Initiative reached out to local stakeholders police, hospital, medical staff, vendors, migrants, etc.