Private lender RBL Bank has repurposed one of its CSR programmes under which aspiring low-income women entrepreneurs from Maharashtra and West Bengal were trained to manufacture 70,000 face masks which gave them a meaningful work and much needed economic

Private lender RBL Bank has repurposed one of its CSR programmes under which aspiring low-income women entrepreneurs from Maharashtra and West Bengal were trained to manufacture 70,000 face masks which gave them a meaningful work and much needed economic support to their families during the COVID-19 crisis.

Among other initiatives been undertaken as part of corporate social responsibility (CSR), the bank provided food relief to 1500 underprivileged families in Mumbai, medical devices to an hospital, laptops and tablets to school children of low income families for e-learning besides supporting migrant labourers, it added.

In a statement, RBL Bank Human Resources, CSR and Internal Branding Head Shanta Vallury Gandhi said the bank enabled re-purposing of a CSR program managed by the NGO Natarajan Education Society (NES) in Pune (Maharasthra), that gave astounding results.

NES trains women on tailoring and fashion designing to help them set up small business and self-help groups. But the bank gave an opportunity to these women to manufacture three ply cloth mask for distribution to front-line workers, business correspondents and branch staff and customers.

“In a short duration of over two months, these women beneficiaries manufactured 60,000 masks distributed across the four zones in India,”the bank said.

The women beneficiaries and NES in a short duration transited from classroom training to completely virtual environment in order to learn making high quality masks.

Similarly in West Bengal, women Self Help Group (SHG) called Anandadhara manufactured 10,000 masks which were distributed locally in the East and North Eastern states.

The bank has partnered with the West Bengal State Rural Livelihood Mission (WBSRLM) managed women SHG Anandadhara.

“These activities hugely helped the women beneficiaries gain meaningful work and provided the much needed economic support that helped hike their overall family’s income, especially during the lockdown phase of COVID-19,” it added.