But, the life-altering occasion occurred when, though throughout a single of his distribution drives, a labourer asked if he would give him work. After spending restless hours pondering more than the incident and an urge to assistance these persons, Tripathi began the Sheher Se Gaon Tak initiative. The aim was to train the persons from village and provide them with the required capabilities so that they can earn their livelihood and turn out to be atmanirbhar in the accurate sense. “They say when your intentions are good, everything automatically falls in place. And that’s exactly what happened with Sheher Se Gaon Tak initiative. I met a lot of people who supported me in my endeavour,” Manish says.
Armed with a program and required permissions to move about throughout the lockdown, Tripathi’s initiative began to take shape. “I travelled to villages in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Uttarakhand, etc. And, with the help of local self-help groups like Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Urban Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM) and Deen dayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NULM), trained women weavers to make masks. It was my way of empowering them,” Manish adds, though stating he noticed it was the ladies who had been financially supporting their households throughout the lockdown. Soon, they also began producing alternate merchandise like bags, pouches, pencils, pencil toppers, and more.
It was a two-way exchange Manish says — he educated the ladies, but he also got a possibility to understand a lot from them. But, when the news about the vaccine came out, Manish didn’t want these ladies to get disheartened. In a bid to motivate them and marketplace their talent and efforts, he believed of producing the world’s biggest mask.
Manish has located assistance for his endeavour from Uttar Pradesh Khadi and Village Industries Board. Khadi has offered Manish with fabrics from 75 districts as a symbol of their assistance. The masks, created by ladies weavers, are becoming assembled at Manish’s Delhi factory. Once the mask is comprehensive, it will be floated on a hot air balloon in the initially week of January 2021. Later, the mask will be disintegrated and converted into alternate merchandise.