USHA Silai School Spreads Its Wings With The Help Of Public And Private Partners
Updated: May 29, 2019 18:34 IST
Eight years ago USHA Silai School set on a journey to make women from marginalised communities self-sufficient. Over the years, the program has received support in various forms from people across the country. With the increasing public and private partnership, USHA has only grown and reached to different parts of the country. The partnerships have taken USHA to villages of Uttar Pradesh and Assam.
As part of their CSR (Corporate social responsibility), Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) and North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO), recently partnered with USHA Silai School Program to provide livelihood opportunities to rural women in their respective areas. While USHA was given the job to train rural women, public and private partners took the responsibility of setting up a sewing centre with high tech sewing machines.
To promote livelihood in the state of Uttar Pradesh, WII reached out to USHA and requested them to train women residing in rural areas. The training has not only increased the family income of these women, but also opened various avenues, as it has done for 17-year-old Aarti.
In Uttar Pradesh's Narora, Aarti initially underwent a 10-day training program and now she is taking 7 days training. This is to support her father financially who needs to sustain a family of eight.
Though she wanted to study further, but change in her father's job due to his deteriorating health and decline in daily income, made Aarti join USHA Silai School Program.
While in Narora, Aarti wishes to help her father financially, at the other end of the state, in Sonbhadra, 50-year-old Rajni joined USHA for her husband, a tuition teacher, who lost his eyesight due to an infection.
The day USHA with the help of NCL opened a Silai School in Sonbhadra, Rajni enrolled herself, took the training and ended up starting her own sewing business. To get additional hands, she trained her daughters as well.
Every month, Rajni gets around eight orders. During marriage season, the number of orders grows which adds up in her income.
Whatever money Rajni earns through sewing is used to run the house and buying medicines for her husband. Having done this, she feels elated on being able to do something productive on her own.
Not only in Uttar Pradesh, but USHA is also providing an additional source of income to women of Assam. With the support from NEEPCO, USHA is training women of Dibrugarh in Assam in cutting, tailoring, and repair and maintenance of sewing machines.
In 2014, Mamoni, a widow and a mother of three, learned about USHA Silai School Program from the panchayat and registered herself for seven-day training. Though her children were too young to be left alone, she had to leave them for their future.
Today, she gets sewing orders on a daily basis. Along with this, she is currently teaching a batch of eight learners and has already taught 40 girls.
With all this she earns Rs. 10,000 every month, which are well enough to meet all the needs of her children.
