In Muzaffarnagar, women fight the Covid pandemic, support themselves
There are 881 active SHGs in the district and 258 of these, comprising 2,580 women, are engaged in producing items needed to combat the pandemic
LUCKNOW : PPE gowns, cotton masks, sanitisers, Ayush kadha, liquid soap, detergent, food packets, school uniforms, rakhis— you name it and poor, rural women have made it in maledominant Muzaffarnagar.
Taking rural entrepreneurship to new heights, women’s self-help groups (SHGs) are striving to make up the shortfall of personal protective equipment (gowns) and face masks, among other things, and helping the western UP district fight the Covid-19 pandemic while earning handsome amounts for themselves.
“More than 800 self-help groups, constituted since long under the Deendayal Antodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM), have risen to the occasion,” Muzaffarnagar district magistrate Selva Kumari J said.
“The self-help groups engaged in combating the pandemic have already produced around 1.37 lakh masks, 2,923 PPE kits, 750 litres sanitiser and 4,200 packets of herbal Ayush kadha.
These products brought in Rs 3,19,000, Rs 1,52,732, Rs 3,36,000, Rs 42,000, respectively, for them,” added the DM, who regularly meets group members to encourage them and sort out issues.
SHGs are informal associations of people who choose to come together to find ways to improve their living standard through a venture and with the help of the government and banks.
Currently, there are 881 active self-help groups in the district and 258 of these comprising 2,580 women are engaged in producing items needed to combat the pandemic.
As many as 15 self-help groups consisting of 150 women make hand sanitiser, 36 self-help groups of 350 women produce PPE gowns and 18 groups comprising 188 women prepare packets of Ayush kadha.
“We help self-help groups supply their products like cotton masks, PPE gowns, sanitiser, toilet cleaner, liquid soaps, washing powder, room freshner to local government hospitals, offices etc, or they themselves sell products to people by putting up stalls,” Selva Kumari said.
The rest of the SHGs are engaged in producing different products like rakhi, ‘gobar gamla’, earthen lamps, worship material, decoration pieces, pickles and papar, cotton carpets and bed sheets. The biggest contract they have taken is, however, for stitching school uniforms.
According to the DM, the education department has given a work order to 505 self-help groups comprising 5,050 women for preparing 2.80 lakh school uniforms during the year 2020-21.
They will be paid at the rate of Rs 300 per uniform. Their total work order is of Rs 8.40 crore.
“They have already produced around 28,000 uniforms till now,” she claimed.
The self-help groups are also a lifeline for helpless and poor women.
For example, after her husband divorced her, Pratibha of Saidpur village, under the Baghra block, started a self-help group with 10 other women. “Our group, named ‘Sanjivi’, makes hand sanitiser, liquid soap, detergent, incense sticks, etc, and each group member earns Rs 20,000-25,000 every month to lead a comfortable and independent life,” she said.
Meanwhile, Poonam, who heads the self-help group named ‘Prakrati’ said that each of the 10 members of the groups save around Rs 20,000 per month by producing and selling different products.
The DM said that women associated with the self-help groups had emerged as strong entrepreneurs, giving a boost to the rural economy and making them self-reliant in keeping with the spirit of the ‘Atma Nirbhar’ campaign.