Around 150 women, who are members of the town-based urban women self-help groups (SHGs), are racing against time to stitch a little over 45,000 cloth masks in the next few days to supply them to the Khammam Municipal Corporation (KMC).
The KMC has placed an order for production of nearly 60,000 cloth masks with these women SHGs, to be distributed to sanitation workers, health functionaries and others free of cost, sources said.
Task to MEPMA
The civic body has entrusted the task of supervising the work to the officials of the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA), three days ago.
The move was necessitated to overcome the shortage of masks and augment their supply to the key front-line field level functionaries of the sanitation wing of Khammam Municipal Corporation, Health, Panchayat Raj and other allied government departments, in the wake of COVID-19 threat.
Members of as many as 10 women SHGs had already produced nearly 15,000 cloth masks in the last two days at different centres set up for this purpose under the aegis of the MEPMA officials, sources said.
Handy expertise
Several of them are well-trained tailors and their expertise is proving to be handy for other members to expeditiously execute the task, said MEPMA district mission coordinator Sujatha.
With the support of the slum-level federations, nearly 150 members of as many as 10 women SHGs are working in a coordinated manner to complete the stipulated task and handover the remaining 45,000 cloth masks to the KMC in the next few days, she said.
These cloth masks are easy to wear and reusable, the coordinator noted.
