AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh state government's initiative of making 16 crore masks is in turn providing employment opportunity to around 40,000 women during this crisis time. Making most of the opportunity, each of the women is now earning Rs 500 per day by making the face masks. The AP government has taken up this initiative as part of its commitment to provide three face masks to each of the people of the state. This was announced as part of many innovative plans thought about by the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

Soon after devising the plan to distribute the face masks to the public, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has decided to turn this into a major employment opportunity to women in the state. He entrusted this project of making 16 crore face masks directly to AP self-help groups, thus deviating from the tradition of roping in contractors for the mammoth work. The state government has already started the distribution of free masks in red zones while it will be carried out also in other areas very soon.

According to reports, all the women in the self-help groups are making each mask at a minimal cost of just Rs 3.5. By Sunday, April 19, about 7.28 lakh masks were prepared by these women groups. Now, the state government is planning to increase the output to 30 lakh per day to meet the demand for the masks in the state within three to four days.

For this mega initiative to distribute 16 crore masks, a total of 1.50 crore meters of cloth is required and the state government has already procured 20 lakh meters of it till now.

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