SEWA members in Misir Gonda, Kanke, in Ranchi, are domestic workers. Most of them were unable to go to work during the lockdown. In the grips of the financial crisis, when even food essentials became hard to come by, masks were a luxury that couldn’t be afforded.
Lalitaben shared her misery and that of many others, with Laxmiben, a SEWA aagewan. Laxmiben is skilled in stitching, but demand is low due to the lockdown. When approached by Lalitaben, she made masks out of leftover scrap cloths for 40 SEWA members and distributed them in the village.