Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Jagan Mohan Reddy, last week, had ordered for the distribution of 3 masks per head in the state and free distribution of masks in hotspots.

This posed as a major employment opportunity for women self help groups who are familiar with tailoring. The project requires 16 crore face masks to be made. Over 40,000 women have been working on these masks which are being made at the rate of ₹3.5 and the average a woman is earning due to this scheme is about ₹500 a day.

The first batch of masks which contained 7.28 lakh masks were distributed by the women groups on April 20.

The total production requires nearly 1.5 crore metres of cloth, of which 20 lakh metres has already been provided to the women by the Andhra Pradesh State Handloom Weavers’ Cooperative Society (APCO). The state initiative is being assisted by the Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas (MEPMA), reported Mumbai Mirror.

The production is only expected to increase in the coming days and this initiative serves well to aid the pandemic crisis, while at the same time providing employment opportunities to thousands of women and helping them get through the tough times.

The distribution is aimed at red zones first, and then the orange and green zones will be covered.

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