Recently we covered how the government is planning Suraksha stores using which all the essentials will be distributed in the coming days. To implement this properly, govt. has associated India’s biggest consumer goods companies to convert millions of neighborhood Kirana stores into sanitised retail outlets.
According to Livement, Nestle India, Britannia Industries Ltd, Marico Ltd, J&J Consumer, Dabur India Ltd, Tata Consumer Products, Procter and Gamble Hygiene and Health Care Ltd, Mondelez India, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, ITC Ltd, Colgate-Palmolive Co. (India) Ltd are on the initial list.
These companies will adopt stores and help them with education and certification on safety and hygiene standards. Later, 40-50 more companies will join the initiative.
The companies have been assigned states and the protocols include maintaining social distancing, ensuring use of sanitisers or hand wash by consumers before entering the shops, provision of masks to all staff and sanitisation of high-contact areas at least twice a day.
“The initiative called Suraksha Stores is a joint attempt by the government and leading FMCG companies to convert the neighbourhood kirana stores into sanitized retail outlets selling daily essentials, while adhering to safety norms such as social distancing and sanitization. This, I feel, will also go a long way in controlling the spread of covid-19 in India. We are also extending this to cover ayurveda outlets across India,”
said Dabur India CEO Mohit Malhotra. Retailers can sign up on SurakshaStore.com for certification.
“Aarogya Setu-compliant Suraksha Store is a public-private initiative to ensure that we can create a safe and secure environment for our consumers and shop owners at our kirana stores. A Suraksha Store is a store (kirana, pharmacy, consumer touchpoint) that follows 100% Suraksha safety norms. These stores shall be educated, certified and validated to follow all common minimum health standards as well as safety checklists. Some companies have adopted states,”
according to details listed on the Suraksha Stores website.
