Masks have become an essential commodity and tapping on this are members of Enactus, Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) . The necessity of masks has been turned into a financial opportunity for widowed women of of Lal Bagh, Delhi so that they can sustain themselves financially during the pandemic. The students under their project Aavran, help these women in making Khadi masks and then selling it to various NGO’s and groups.
Divya Ravi, president of Enactus SRCC, says, “ The women working with us for this project are a widowed community of women from Lal Bagh area of Delhi. For our initial funding,we were supported by two of the SRCC alumni and after that we were able to purchase the raw material required in mask production. Initially, we brought five women on board but after the increase in demand for the masks, we employed three more women through this project.”
Ensuring that every woman is able to earn a certain amount, she adds, “Our primary focus has been to identify NGO’s who are conducting mask distribution drives. We sell them at subsidised rates and then they distribute it further free of cost. We have been able to provide an income of Rs.6000-6500 to each woman in the past month.”
Women associated with this project are making sure that all the safety precautions are taken during work.”Regular temperature checks are being done and we are mandated to use sanitisers before we start the work. We stitch 30-35 masks per woman and before packing and delivery, they are sanitised. We are eight women and we maintain all social distancing protocols,” says Roopam.
The students have collaborated with organisations outside Delhi, thus ensuring regular demand for the masks.
”In just a span of one month, we have got orders for 5000 masks. We have collaborations with various NGO’s, through which we also provided masks to ragpickers in Karnataka. Apart from that, we also get orders through our social media,” says, Arushi Mahajan, project member and a second year student.
