By Manoj Pathak

Muzaffarpur, May 14 (IANS): Even as the Covid pandemic has battered many lives across India, some have turned this crisis into an opportunity.

One such person is Farooq Alam of Bihar's Muzaffarpur district.

Two years ago, Alam was an employee at a private firm in Delhi, but today he provides self-employment to 30-35 people in his Bangra Sugauli village.

Alam, 36, went to seek a job in Delhi four to five years back after he failed to secure employment in his state.

Finally, he got a job in a Delhi-based textile company, as he was skilled in both sewing and making readymade clothes.

However, Alam's life took a u-turn last year, after the lockdown was imposed due to the Covid-19 outbreak.

Distressed after his job loss, Alam returned to his village and promised himself that he would never go to any other city in his life in search of a job.

Alam told IANS: "After the outbreak of the first Covid wave and the subsequent lockdowns, I had contacted people from Ramgarhwa, Raxaul and Harsidhi areas, who were my fellow workers in Delhi, and then we decided to start making readymade garments in my village itself. They too agreed to my proposal and we started our business with five sewing machines."

Initially, our readymade tracksuits and jackets were sold in our rural and urban areas but later the demand was from Muzaffarpur, Hajipur, Gopalganj among other cities.

Alam said that after this, when orders started coming from other places too, a large hall was built in the village and the work was ramped up.

He added that currently his factory has 30 sewing machines and many other machines, which are used for making readymade clothes.

He said that after that the demand for his clothes was from Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati.

Alam said that amid the lockdown due to the second Covid wave, he got an order for 10,000 masks. He added that today there are 30 to 35 people working in this factory.

Shamshad, who works in this factory, said: "Today, we are all getting work in the village only because of the mercy of Allah, what can be better than this."

Alam said that they are now planning to expand the factory.