Provide livelihood to indigent villagers to produce cotton masks and help prevent the spread of COVID-19 infection during the worst global health emergency

COVID has affected us all more than anyone ever imagined in their wildest dreams. The whole world is reeling under its baneful impact, more so the poor. Global Pragathi has been actively providing assistance to the underprivileged during the pandemic since March 2020. All along, we were wondering about the ideal way in which our organization could help the poor in some of the poorly accessible villages of India. Then it struck us. It had to be the production of cotton masks, a great need of the hour to prevent COVID infection. With a huge demand for this preventive product, it would be a wonderful way to provide employment to villagers reeling from unemployment, in-line with the organization’s mission of sustained poverty alleviation.

During the current times of social distancing, the project had to be a simple one to implement with minimal remote supervision. Procuring the raw material, production of the masks and marketing or free distribution of the product useful to the public are all extremely challenging during this crises. So, these steps had to be kept very simple.

Cotton fabric is inexpensive and locally available. Skilled labor is readily available in the form of unemployed women trained earlier in stitching by Pragathi. Almost all the women had earlier been provided with sewing machines for free by us. It will be a tremendous boost to the family incomes and local economy during these troubled times where employment of any sort is hard to come by. At the least, one hundred families will be supported for one year.

The beauty of the project also lies in combining preventive, economic and social aspects to support impoverished rural communities, resulting in a huge impact. Lack of support during these times will result in devastating effects.

Women have demonstrated that each one can make about 100 masks/day. Currently, we are making more than 40,000 masks a week. In one year, total masks production amounts to 2 million (calculated @ an average of 5,500 masks/day). The cost to produce each mask amounts to nearly Rs. 8– this is inclusive of raw material, transportation charges, rent for premises, stitching charges, wastage, R & D with quality improvement and salaries for Pragathi staff. The total project cost is Rs. 16 million (Rs. 1.6 Crores) in 1 year (2 million x Rs. 8), which is around $ 216,000 (calculated @ $ 1 = Rs. 74).