Army veteran uses bag making unit to produce protective gear

In the process, he has also provided jobs to some of the migrant workers who couldn’t return to their respective home state following the lockdown.

Dhamodharan Kannan (45) has been running a bag manufacturing unit, targeting the school, college students and those carrying laptops, in Neelankarai for the past eight years. When the government announced a nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 upsurge, his workers returned to their natives except for some migrants. For 10 days, he provided food and shelter for the migrant workers.

It was then that Dhamodharan learnt about the shortage of protective gears, the demand for which has gone up due to the virus scare. Soon, his unit, comprising of 25 workers, started producing 250 sets of head covers, body gowns and shoe covers on a daily basis.

“We have received orders from various hospitals in Chennai, Madurai and Tirupati. We have delivered 600 sets of the 1,000 orders we have received. We are expecting more demand in the coming days as hospitals in the coming days,” said Dhamodharan. It’s not just Dhamodharan alone. A first aid kit and hospital disposals manufacturer near Kundrathur has started producing the protective gears since last week to meet the demand.

K Sudhakar (48) has been running the unit to produce hospital disposals for the last three years. When the COVID-19 outbreak led to a shortage of masks and gowns, he decided to use his workforce to produce them.

He said that as of now nine people are working and producing 200 bodysuits, covering from head to toe, per day. “We received orders for 1,000 suits and have delivered 500 to various hospitals in Chennai and other districts,” said Sudhakar.

“As of now, nine people are working on those suits. I have the resources and manpower to produce more suits if there is a demand from more hospitals,” added Sudhakar.