JOIN USCoronavirus: Face masks bring livelihood for Assam women
Podumi Saikia found an opportunity in the Coronavirus crisis. As all the Gamosas, the Assamese traditional towel she weaved for this year's Rongali Bihu remained unsold due to the lockdown, she used them to prepare masks.
"During last year's Bihu, I earned about Rs. 28,000. But so far I have got about Rs. 12,000 by selling the masks and hope to earn more as the demand is increasing even in the villages due to the fear of coronavirus," Saikia, a mother of three daughters in Jagiroad in central Assam's Morigaon district said.
Gamosas are gifted during the Rongali Bihu, Assam's biggest cultural festival celebrated in April-May every year. But the celebrations this year was marred by the coronavirus crisis and so did the business of the weavers.
As many like Podumi started making and selling the masks, Assam State Rural Livelihood Mission (ASRLM) chipped in and guided them to make the masks as per the government guidelines, provided a brand name, Asomi and market linkages. More than 2,200 women associated with 1,163 Self-Help-Groups (SHG) in all 33 districts have produced over 4.43 lakh cotton masks and have earned Rs. 76.6 lakh so far.
They have also distributed nearly 50,000 masks free of cost including to the tea garden workers.
"The government has made wearing masks and social distancing compulsory to prevent coronavirus infection. But we have observed that masks are not easily available in rural areas. So we found that our SHG members can reap the benefit of this growing demand for the mask. This will help them bridge the loss they suffered due to lockdown during Rongali Bihu. So we used the Whatsapp and shared the videos of how to make masks to our community level workers. They passed on the videos to the rural women," Dhrubajyoti Gogoi, the state project manager (livelihoods and marketing), ASRLM told DH on Thursday.
Gogoi said the SHGs under ASRLM had sold Gamosas worth Rs. 1.26 crores during Rongali Bihu last year.
The ASRLM also helped the women sell the masks in bulk to Airport Authority of India (Jorhat), ONGC, and even Lakhimpur district administration. The double-layered cotton masks are priced between Rs. 15 to 35. "Since the government has relaxed the MGNREGA works in our villages now, each panchayat will require at least 2,000 masks. So the demand for masks will further go up when the lockdown is lifted," Gogoi said. Assam has about 2,500 panchayats at present.
The ASRLM has also helped the SHG members to sell vegetables grown by them, eggs, poultry, milk, and other household products worth Rs. 2.5 crore so far during the lockdown. "These products are being collected from homes by permitted vendors and are sold in the markets as per the lockdown guidelines. This provided some earning to the rural women and reduced the loss incurred due to the lockdown," he said.
So far, Assam has reported 35 COVID-19 positive cases including one on Thursday(April 23). One of them succumbed to the virus.