Varanasi women lend helping hand to migrant workers, villagers

Chethan Kumar | TNN | Apr 21, 2020, 16:49 IST

BENGALURU: Varanasi’s Rural Women Technology Park (RWTP), joining India’s fight against Covid-19, has extended a helping hand to migrant workers by training and engaging women in making facemask as per WHO guidelines, distributing food as well as hand sanitizers.
“More than 500 masks created at the RWTP center in Basani have been distributed among migrant laborers, tribal families in Koiripur, Anei, Kuwar, Chanauli, Barhi Nevada of development block Baragaon, Varanasi,” the department of science and technology (DST), which supports RWTPs across the country, said.
The staff has also distributed more than 200 food grains packs — containing 2kg rice, 2kg wheat & 1kg daal — in 15 nearby villages and to the migrant workers who are most affected in this pandemic situation.
They also produced and distributed hand sanitizers to the migrant workers, ration & food supply distributors, and villagers to protect them from the virus.
“Creating large-scale awareness on the use of measures such as the ArogyaSetu App and distribution of aids such as masks and sanitizers in the rural, semi-urban and migrant workers is of utmost importance. These are precisely the tasks that enlightened and empowered NGOs and Self-Help Groups working at grass-roots are best at doing,” Prof Ashutosh Sharma, secretary, DST, said in a statement.
Besides, the staff is conducting online training to create digital designs and generate finished products to help the women beneficiaries to gainfully utilize their time at home during the lockdown period.
Around 250 women were trained to install ‘ArogyaSetu App’ and send the link of the ArogyaSetu App to more than 4,000 families digitally. The app is helping rural women get information related to Covid-19.
The RWTP focuses on the Women Empowerment through skill enhancement, entrepreneurship development, and providing market linkages.