Women in Punjab's Hoshiarpur prepare homemade masks for villagers to fight COVID-19

A group of women in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab are making and distributing homemade masks to safeguard residents of their village, migrant workers and those supplying essential commodities from the threat of coronavirus.

Young women in GugwaalHaar village situated in Hajipur block of Hoshiarpur are working tirelessly to safeguard the residents of their village and those in the vicinity, vulnerable migrant workers and ration and food supply distributors from COVID 19 infections by making and distributing face masks free of cost, a Science and Technology Ministry release said.

The group is led by the village Sarpanch Narinder Singh.

"The crowdsourcing of home-made masks for the general population is fast catching up as awareness about the mask making and its use, aided by the local leadership, has become widespread. This will prove to be a vital action in slowing and breaking the chain of transmission (of coronavirus)," said Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Department of Science and Technology.

The initiative started on April 6 and the women participated in making homemade cloth masks as per the instructions issued in the manual released by the office of Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.

Punjab State S&T Council (PSCST) supported this group by providing necessary raw material for the initiative.

Within ten days, the group of women have supplied more than 2000 good quality masks in four villages near GugwaalHaar to migrant labour, villagers and small-time shopkeepers.

( With inputs from ANI )