With the country stepping into the second phase of lockdown to fight the corona pandemic, many street vendors have a new business of face masks for them in markets. The sad part is that this emerging face mask business is unsafe, as it does not meet the quality standards prescribed by WHO and other well-reputed health organisations. This business has surged in the country now a days. Although the government made it compulsory for everyone out on the roads to avoid crowds and cover their faces with masks and hands with gloves as a precautionary measure but it could not do much about giving general masses the awareness about the usage of these accessories.

Cotton-made face masks do not promise safety

Every second vendor in the market has cotton made face masks to sell. The purpose of wearing the face mask is to prevent Corona virus particles entering our nose and mouth as the virus particularly attacks the respiratory tree. This surely cannot be achieved with these cotton-made face masks as they have a pore-size larger than that of the virus particle. Not just the size, but the sterility of these masks is also compromised. The manufacturers are buying a random cloth for the preparation of these masks, with least measures to check the contamination of the cloth. Selling these masks without sanitizing their hands not only kills the purpose of the mask but also makes them the potential spreaders of the disease.

A lot has to be done for educating people about the usage of the right masks i.e. N-95. These have a pore size smaller than the size of the virus and also contain a respiratory valve which eases breathing.

N-95 masks have been distributed at large scale by various health watchdogs and NGOs. But their availability has become a grave problem because of a ruthless mafia of hoarders. The problem of sudden unavailability of these N-95 masks should be dealt with regressive checking on the stocking mafia and by regulating their ever-increasing prices.

Panacea to the daunting problem

The financial jerk in economic activities has severely affected the majority of the country’s population. As most of the people are living below the poverty line, people need to earn their bread. Hence, they have found mask selling as the best option according to the need of the hour without considering the serious repercussions.

To solve this daunting problem, government should engage local population in mask manufacturing, instead of giving them the chance of creating their own open market to sell these and putting the lives of people at risk. A training session of two to three days (keeping in mind all the measures needed to be taken for social distancing) may be conducted in which the renowned garment factories, that do value addition to the cloth, may be hired to train the locals about all the intricacies required for the manufacturing of the sterilized face masks. The uniform quality of the raw material can be maintained if government provides the raw material itself to the local industry.

The government can then buy these masks from the locals or per mask wage can be decided. This on one hand will generate greater amount of employment opportunities for both men and women. The good part is that the women may participate in this task, without getting out of their homes, hence, maintaining a balance with their household chores. In addition, it will also help curb the shortage of these masks for our frontline warriors and general population.

The long-term benefit of this skill learning by the natives would help government get these masks prepared any time, if any such disease strikes the country in future. Moreover, the quality check, auditing and monitoring of this whole process can be easily maintained by the government. In this way, corruption can also be avoided, as the government shall be providing all the necessary material and apparatus by itself. In the end, government should educate and convince masses on a larger scale to stay away from the face mask hoaxers.