When the Covid-19 pandemic was at its peak, the whole nation was trying its best to battle with it. Paramedic forces were working hard day and night. Apart from the lakhs of people that have fallen prey to this deadly virus, we are also combating another deadly threat in the form of unemployment. The health structure is facing a mighty challenge and to win the battle against the virus, the most important weapon that the front liner health workers need is Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits. And in this widespread crisis, there is one person who is taking care of these two major issues simultaneously.
In Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district, IAS Mr. Arvind Singh has implemented steps to solve both these problems by hiring underprivileged women and employing them to make PPE kits for the front line health workers.
Idea for the Initiative
Mr. Singh is a 2015 batch IAS officer who completed his Engineering from IIT Varanasi and MBA from IIM Lucknow. He cracked IAS in his third attempt and scored AIR-10. Today, he holds the post of Chief development officer in Lakhimpur Kheri. When the pandemic struck, Mr. Singh realized that he needed to deploy human resources who will work to restrain the spread.
“Ours is not a very infrastructural advanced district with multi-specialty healthcare facilities. So, as the COVID-19 situation intensified, teams of healthcare professionals were urgently deployed at all of our health centers,” said Mr. Singh.
He appointed a number of teams, each consisting of 25 members who included doctors, nurses, pharmacists, ambulance drivers, and janitors. working in two shifts during the day, they continually came in direct contact with Coronavirus patients. The people who supplied food to the patients, as well as police personnel in charge of the hospital security and quarantine centers, also needed protection.
That is when Mr. Singh realized that procuring PPE kits was a necessity for them. The surge in demand for kits had already sky-rocketed and to top it, the countrywide lockdown made it even more difficult to acquire. “Fortunately, we had already engaged our self-help groups in indigenously manufacturing the PPEs, days before the lockdown was announced on 25th March,” he held.
Operation Kabach
Mr. Singh called all his teams and sat down with them. He discussed his initiative with the members and afterward called in suppliers for procuring raw material for the PPE kits. A complete Personal Protective Equipment kit contains polypropylene coveralls, goggles, face shields, headgears, masks, gloves, and shoe covers. Mr. Singh appointed about 185 underprivileged rural women who worked in 6 different blocks of the Lakhimpur Kheri and deployed them into the manufacturing unit. He had the vision of beginning with the manufacturing even before the country went under lockdown phase 1 on 25th March 2020.
Once all the material required was obtained, these underprivileged women were trained meticulously and coached in designing and manufacturing the kits up to the required standard. The final product was finalized after almost twenty rehearsals. But their hard work really paid off when the quality of these PPE kits was considered so good that that Director-General of Communicable Diseases certified the design and quality of the kit on April 8, 2020!
Success of the Operation
Thanks to Operation Kabach, the teams set up by Mr. Singh received their first order of 52 kits from the Lucknow Cantonment of 41st Infantry Brigade, and the Kumaon Indore division which ordered 20 kits. Soon, Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) too ordered 30 PPE kits. As of now, the Northern Commands Army Base hospital in Lucknow has already given order of 2000 PPE kits to Operation Kabach.
The price of each kit has been determined at Rs.490, which is less than half of what the Army and the Health Department was paying to private enterprises. Prior to this, the Indian Army was compelled to pay double the amount for the imported kits that were not just extremely expensive but often of sub-standard. Indian Army in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh has ordered these PPE kits in bulk for the army base COVID hospitals. The payment received through these orders is directly credited to the SHG bank accounts, thereby enabling the empowerment of rural women.
Today, the Operation has the capacity of manufacturing 1500 kits per day. The center where the production takes place follows strict protocols of sanitation and social distancing. Mr. Arvind himself visits the centers at least once a day.
“Presently, we have the strength of around 175 women across 28 SHGs in 6 blocks of the district, namely, Lakhimpur Kheri, Isanagar, Nighasan, Palia, Gola and Mohammadi. We strictly follow all the standard sanitary protocols and social distancing norms at all these centres, which are disinfected twice daily,” according to Mr. Singh.
CDO Mr. Arvind Singh’s Operation Kabach has proved to be fruitful for not only the front line health workers but also for the numerous rural ladies who were jobless earlier.
