Kolkata: Homemakers stitch face shields for cops on roads

KOLKATA: A group of homemakers in the city have been keeping themselves busy making face shields for cops. An initiative by Active Citizens Together for Sustainability (ACTS), 5,000 such face shields have been gifted so far. And more are being made. The homemakers are paying for the project out of their own pockets.
It started with Pankaj Maloo, an ACTS volunteer who gifted a few face shields to some cops on the street.
“We were delivering food packets to the needy and the cops helped us a lot. We realized that these cops had to be out on the roads and these frontline warriors needed the shields,” said Maloo. He and his wife Shashi then got a close network of 12 friends, all homemakers, for the project, titled ‘Karuna Kawach’.
Maloo got the materials – OHP sheets (150 micron-thick plastic), glue guns and rubber bands — with the help of police and delivered them to the homemakers.
“I have made around 400 shields so far. In fact, my son and my mother-in-law, too, have been helping me. I feel this is a fruitful engagement during the lockdown,” said Dipika Bafna, homemaker from Bhowanipore.
Easy-to-make and costing less than Rs 10 per mask, ACTS has distributed 5,000 of them among cops from Kolkata and Bidhannagar, as well as among civic workers.