Miss Mask! An octogenarian from Indore devotes herself to making masks and distributing it to needy

She is 80 years old, but her zeal to combat coronavirus is that of a young girl of 18. Sushma Kelkar, a resident of Shyam nagar in Sukhaliya district of Indore. She has been sewing masks for the needy and the poor people of the near by area.

Sushma Kelkar has been doing social work and used to stitch frocks for girls of orphanages. For this, she made use of the cloth pieces that were at home. When asked what motivated her of to make masks, Sushma said, “it is  need of the hour and  I had these cloth pieces that were meant for the girls but now I am using them to make masks and save lives which is of utmost importance.''

Sushma Kelkar stitches at least 25 masks a day and her son Srikant Kelkar helps her in distributing it to the needy people.

Srikant says, “there are times we even go and hand it over to the police who then go ahead and give to those who don’t have it.'''

Sushma Kelkar is a retired teacher but has also done a diploma course in sewing and embroidery and has been making aprons, embroidered kurtas and some times sarees of her daughter, daughter in law and grandchild. She said, “I love stitching and embroidery and I make aprons which I often gift to people.''

Since the Corona outbreak, Sushma's day starts with breakfast in the morning and after that she is on her sewing machine making masks for people. Srikant says, “She takes breaks in  between but it goes on the whole day and is never tired of working on the machine. We now plan to increase the quantity and want to involve some women of the colony.''

Sushma has utilised almost all the cloth pieces that was with her in making masks. She says her son's friend has promised to get her cloth pieces, but adds, `”if I am going to involve more people from the society then we will need more cloth pieces and will be happy if I can get the supply.''

Kelkar family plans to collaborate with the Nagar Nigam in manufacturing masks and providing them to the most needy people of Indore which is also one of the hotspots of Coronavirus.