The district administration in Birbhum has taken up the initiative to install three automated vending machines to dispense masks made by groups of migrant workers in three big towns of the district in the run-up to Durga Puja.

The move is a bid to help migrant workers during a difficult year and help people stay safe amid the anticipated festive crowding, said sources.

“In addition to assisting migrant workers during a year like this (because of the pandemic), we also want to encourage among all the habit of wearing masks by increasing their availability and lowering their price,” said an official, adding the masks would be made by workers. “The price of a mask will be between Rs 10 and Rs 15.”

Orders for three such automated machines have been placed, and the machines would be installed in crowded points at three subdivisional towns Bolpur, Suri and Rampurhat. Sources added that apart from vending points, migrant labourers would also be allowed to sell their masks at pandals.

Each cloth mask will have two or three layers. District officials plan to produce over 10,000 masks for the festive season.

“The move has been taken for twofold benefits — helping out a group of migrants who know tailoring and also to make masks available in the market during the festive season. Apart from three automated vending machines, masks will be sold manually as well,” said Birbhum district magistrate Moumita Godara Basu, referring to the added risk of infection during festival crowds.

In Birbhum, nearly 30,000 migrant workers returned home after losing out-of-state jobs during the lockdown, according to a district database. Using the database, officials are tracking down labourers with tailoring skills so that they can make masks.

Officials this week have contacted around a hundred such migrant workers with this proposal.

People shop ahead of the festivities at New Market in Calcutta on Sunday. Gautam Bose

“We will provide those migrant workers with raw materials and remuneration for making masks. It will help them earn some money before the festive seasons,” said an official.

Officials explained that apart from three subdivisional towns, there are three more municipal towns in the district where at least 40 large-scale Durga Pujas are organised. The administration has accordingly planned to allow the sale of masks manually by forming small groups of migrant workers for the mask project.

“Crowd flocks to Puja pandals in towns like Dubrajpur and Sainthia too. We plan to engage mask makers to sell their produce manually in those places,” said a source.

Babu Mallick of Suri, who worked as a tailor in Mumbai and returned home in June, welcomed the mask project. “It will help us earn some money before the festive season. But we need regular work to survive in the long term,” he said.