Meet The Entrepreneur - Gauri Jivane

Gauri Jivane is 42 years old and is running her Silai School in village called Shivangaon in the Nagpur district of Maharashtra. Gauri is a widow with the son doing his MBA and a daughter studying in a school in Nagpur. Despite her poor background Gauri managed a graduation degree for herself and work as a clerk in a Co-operative Bank before her marriage.

She went through a tragedy when her husband committed suicide 9 years ago leaving her and her children badly shaken up and unsupported financially. Gauri decided to work in a tailoring shop and completed a one year course in Tailoring and Embroidery. She tried her hand at stitching petticoats while working in the tailoring shop.

On the 12th March 2014, Gauri opened USHA Silai School which she is running till today with lot of commitment and focus. Apart from teaching girls sewing, stitching and embroidery, Gauri also takes orders for Ghaghras and innovatively converts discarded garments into interesting and beautiful products. She is becoming famous for making new things from discarded material. Today Gauri owns three sewing machines and has trained more than 11 learners. Gauri is also being successful and established a small boutique and would like to expand her work. Gauri feels highly indebted to USHA International for providing her the opportunity for opening her own silai school.

Her story in her own words: I am Mrs. Gauri Chandrashekhar Jiwane. I am 45 years old. I live in Chandernagar, Nagpur. My husband passed away 10 years ago. When I got married I had passed high school. I did my graduation afterwards. My husband supported me a lot. Then, for 10 years, I worked with a company. I left that and worked with a tailoring shop for a few years. I would get the fabrics home and stitch. Sometimes, I would work from the shop. It depended on how much I needed to be around my kids. As my daughter began to grow up, she reached Standard X; I began to work only from home. I was always interested in tailoring. I was always good at it. When I left my job, I had thought I shouldn’t work for anybody else anymore. I knew how to tailor clothes. But I had a few doubts vis-à-vis cutting of cloth. I underwent a seven-day training at the Usha Silai Programme. On the seventh day, I was given a sewing machine. I was told I must train at least 20 women. Currently, I have eight students. Five of them have been with me awhile, and three of them are new.

We all have old clothes and fabrics. I have started making new, contemporary clothes with them. Most women have many saris. They just gather dust. They don’t feel like giving them away. I created a long skirt for my daughter. Many people saw it and placed orders for the same. I take old cloth and material and make something new out of it. My work has brought me more customers. Many people know I tailor clothes, newly designed clothes. They come with different kinds of orders. I stitch blouses for many of them. We enjoy everything together. We enjoy in the belief that our lives would be good. I believe in life.