Coronavirus: IIT Hyderabad distributes face masks to MNREGA workers and others

IIT Hyderabad is distributing face masks for workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act during the coronavirus pandemic.

With an aim to protect and make people living in a rural area aware of coronavirus, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad has reached out to five villages that have been adopted under Unnat Bharat Abhiyan.

From distributing face masks to workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) to distributing informative materials regarding the coronavirus in the local language, IIT Hyderabad is taking every possible step to protect people from this deadly virus. 

A WhatsApp group has been created for Panchayat Secretaries, ASHA workers, ANM and self-help group leaders, and farmers, IIT Hyderabad informed.

“Brochures, videos, and other informative material related to COVID-19 have been shared through this group. Some of the brochures sent by the coordinating institute has been translated into Telugu so that it could be shared with the village members,” IIT Hyderabad said in a statement.

“The institute is in constant touch with all the secretaries over the phone and they have been asked to reach us in case of any difficulty in the present situation. We have also reached out to the regional coordinating Institute-- NIRD-PR who are also coordinating activities towards this pandemic,” the statement by IIT Hyderabad added. NIRDPR is National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj.

On April 13, the institute also hosted a web meeting with all the participating institutes of NIRDPR and the coordinating institute IIT Delhi.

Telangana has recorded 1,920 coronavirus positive cases till date, as per the data released by the Health Ministry.

Recently, IIM Lucknow has done a survey which revealed that the economic crisis caused by the nationwide coronavirus lockdown is the biggest source of worry for the country.

Most people are not worried about the virus but the “economic impact it is likely to cause in the near future,” according to the survey.