From CK Nayak
New Delhi: People of landlocked North East have their own way to meet any shortage in case of emergency. This has exactly happened during the current COVID-19 pandemic when there is a serious shortage of vital products like face masks, personal protection equipment (PPE) and sanitisers all over the region.
Even common people are now scrambling to equip themselves against the deadly contagion by taking to DIY (do it yourself) formula across the region. Some such people who are making face masks, PPE and sanitisers are volunteers while others also see it as an opportunity to support their livelihood.
In the first week of this month, Meghalaya government issued an advisory asking all citizens to wear face masks in public but affordable facemasks are again a scarce item in the market. But dozens of tailors promptly jumped into action and started stitching face masks for the people.
The Department of Commerce and Industries supplied cloth to hundreds of tailors, professional, amateurs and self-help groups who have eagerly offered their services. As a community, the Shillong Young Mizo Association (YMA) has rallied 70 volunteers who are engaged in mask stitching round the clock.
The state hopes this effort will help produce three lakh double-layered reusable cotton masks locally.
The tailors in the South Garo Hills District managed to sew more than 5,700 face masks at a short notice.
In Shillong, a group called HillTribe Adventurers is working hard at making face shields for doctors and nurses who are posted in COVID-19 help centres. They are making face shields using polycarbonate sheets, which are flexible and transparent and have been found useful for doctors and nurses working in major hospitals of the city.
So much was the demand recently; they have been called on by the Civil Hospital to make protective incubation boxes for testing COVID-19 patients. These are useful in protecting doctors and nurses from getting infected while nursing the patient.
In the state capital, popular fashion designer, C Lalhmingmawii, is stitching protective gowns as PPE for doctors, including some working in the premier institution of North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences in the city, a report said. Many doctors prefer gowns tailored by her.
The latest to pitch in this war against COVID-19 was a 95-year-old woman from Mizoram, Nghakliani, a tailor by profession, who started stitching masks and provided them for free to nurses and others in need.
In Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, hundreds of women from self -help groups are stitching masks and sharing them at a nominal cost.
The Federation of Self Help Groups initiated under the umbrella of the ongoing North Eastern Regional Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP) with their local non-government organisation partners have produced hundreds of masks for people who are in panic because they cannot get it in the market due to lack of supplies from outside. Despite the availability of some high-end masks in the market, common folks find it reluctant to purchase it due to the expensive rates.
Meanwhile, another farmer-entrepreneur, from Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh, Chow Amat Namchoom, has been performing a yeoman’s service there by making hand local sanitisers with the aloe vera from his farm, one of the main ingredients. Impressed, the district administration provided him bottles of Ethanol another ingredient, and the award-winning farmer is donating several litres of sanitisers in the state.
In Mizoram, JT Fashion House, with its network of tailors across the state is also racing to keep the frontline workers in the prevention of pandemic dressed in safe PPE. Even locals have started making face masks using traditional gamosas with tips available from internet.
Face masks, PPE and sanitisers are more important in the North East since thousands of health workers, doctors, police, ASHA, sanitation workers, those working to delivering essential items, truckers, are in the frontline without adequate supply of these necessities.
The region is also low in sanitation, especially in hand sanitation with Meghalaya found in the rock bottom, according to an official study.