Livelihoods: Under the Tamil Nadu State Rural Livelihood Mission, the district administration of Tiruvallur has roped in around 260 members from various self-help groups (SHGs) to make masks. These will be distributed mainly to people working on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) schemes.
The Tiruvallur district comprises of one municipal corporation, four municipalities, 10 towns, and 526 village panchayats.
Under the initiative, the district has the capacity to produce as many as 13,000 masks per day. Each mask will generate profit of 25 paisa for the SHG members. In addition to masks, SHG members have also been trained to stitch personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, and will now receive training from the district administration to make hand sanitisers.
Till date, the district administration has fined nearly eight lakh people seen without masks and collected more than INR 1 crore from them.
Read this article on the need to leverage SHGs to create livelihoods in urban sanitation.
