Soon, parents, especially mothers of children with disabilities, would be stitching yellow cloth bags for the trading community in Ranipet under the Meendum Manjapai scheme to earn a livelihood with the district administration providing free sewing machines to them for the purpose next week. Officials said 98 beneficiaries have been identified in the district in the initial phase of the scheme. They have attended a month-long free tailoring classes that was provided by the government vocational training institute. The shortlisted parents would be given free sewing machines by the district administration. They can stitch yellow cloth bags at home, earning the much-needed income to run their family. “Whenever they (parents) attend camps with their children, they seek jobs to take care of their family. So, we decided to make them stitch cloth bags for traders,” said D. Bhaskara Pandian, Collector, told The Hindu. Mr. Bhaskara Pandian was attending the weekly camp for persons with disabilities at the Collectorate on Tuesday. At present, Ranipet district has 14,500 persons with disabilities. Of these, around 5,200 beneficiaries were covered under various government schemes since the district was bifurcated from Vellore three years ago in 2019. A total of 7,769 beneficiaries were covered under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme and 3,356 persons availed Unique Disability ID (UDID) cards mainly through 48 camps including 18 camps at firka levels that were held for persons with disabilities since August last year (2021). Under the initiative for families with special children, the district administration has roped in the trading association to buy cloth bags made by parents of these children. Raw materials will be provided free by the district administration. A women’s self help group will be formed with mothers of these children as members. As parents of these children cannot step out for jobs due to the special needs of their children, cloth bags made by them will be collected by companies and traders from their homes. On an average, 80 - 100 cloth bags can be made by each family every day. A special team from the district administration will coordinate the initiative. More families with special children will also be brought under the initiative as officials were identifying more beneficiaries in the district, officials said. Traditionally the manjapais were used for shopping, carrying books, ration and even cash. The State government had enforced a ban on the production, use, storage, distribution, transportation or sale of 14 types of plastics with effect from January 1, 2019.
