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MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 7

Diparani Payung

Matilda Mary

Rita Devi

Tulsi Shah

Ledakijuh Nongtdu

Yurthingwon Ronra Shimray

Yurthingwon Ronra Shimray lives with her husband and three kids- one daughter and two sons. She got married in the year 2013. Ms Shimray has been the victim of domestic violence by an alcoholic husband. He also sold her goods and belongings for money so that he could buy the liquor. It was very hard for Ms Shimray, mentally and financially. Subsequently, she learnt to walk away when his temper flared up. In due course she came to know about the USHA Classical Silai School Training Programme through another Silai school teacher. Post training, Ms Shimray started her school on 8th Sept 2019 and managed her family with her earnings. In the meantime, she kept her husband in a rehabilitation centre and fortunately, he got back to his normal life. Now he also helps in her business. She is going ahead with both the teaching and garment making as per community demand. Till now, she has trained 25 learners with a 3 month basic course. Presently, she has two learners enrolled in her school. Above this, she has three women working with her. She earns more than Rs. 12,000 per month from sewing and stitching together. Sometimes she got bulk orders too. During COVID-19, Ms Shimray thought of recycling old bags from different villages nearest to her Silai school. She started discussion with her learners and shared her idea of collecting old clothes and making bags. Ms Shimray executed the new idea in June 2021 from her school in New Canaan village and then spread her collection of old clothes from nearby villages including Yaingangpokpi, Murei, Wunghon. Two women from nearby villages joined her in collecting old clothes and stitching bags. After collecting old clothes, they sort them according to different types of fabrics, colours and types of garments. Following this, they wash and iron the clothes before drafting, cutting and stitching them into bags. Her value-added work was well-received by the community and the nearby market, and she shifted her school to Yaingangpokpi in November 2021, where she started working with three other women. These women are being paid Rs. 30 per bag by Ms Shimray. Apart from bags, they are also making dresses for children. During the last financial year 2021-22, Ms Shimray sold around 200 bags and earned Rs. 25,000 which is an additional income to her regular earning from teaching and general job-work.

Gulab Jahan

Rinku Mondal

Tinku Mondal

Binita Bhatt

Swarnlata Panda

Salma Bano

Suman Devi Kumawat

Varsha

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 6

Gudia Devi

Bharti Kohade

Paulina Tuti

Gouri Das

Kalawati Sharma

Jayashree Janardhan Ghodvinde

Savita Thakur

Bishakha Mahanta

Mamta Bhargav

Hasuben Mohanbhai Rabari

Hasuben Mohanbhai Rabari lives in Kutch, Gujarat. She comes from Rabari community. Due to non-awareness on education and continuously migration, she could not get education. Since she is from shepherded community her parents had sheep and goats and used to migrate from one place to another in search of grass and water. They have migrated to various places of Gujarat like Vadodara, Baruch, Ankleshwar among others when she was child. The migration occurs due to less or no rain in the district. As a child, she had to look after and care the lambs. She learnt the hand crafting from her mother and relatives. When she got expertise in the embroidery work, she started taking work from others in the community for wages. She got married 17 years ago. Her husband also has sheep and goats. He grazes them nearby and stay with the herds. He comes home occasionally. After marriage, she used to quilt to help others, but not for money. She and her family settled in Kutch as it is their native place. She has 2 children- 21 years old daughter and 18 years old son. She was selected for USHA Silai School training program in a year 2013. She is expert in embroidery and other craft work but to add more value on products and increase its attraction she started sewing. She is now making different products like suf embroidered dupattas, rabari embroidered stoles, flap bag rabari, small pouch, clutch rabari and many other such items. She is not only making embroidery work but also sewing to make final products. She is also working as coordinator of Kala Raksha voluntarily to check the quality of work being done by others. She is expert in making design and samples. She has trained 8 girls and 4 women of the village. She used to charge nominal amount for the training Rs. 50 to 100. The 8 girls whom she trained; got married and they have continued the sewing at their in-law’s house. As per her calculation she earns about Rs. 10000 per month from both hand embroidery and tailoring but major part comes from tailoring.

Kusum Devi

Chandam Sunita Devi

Phemo Manham

Prabha Dhanga

Sandna Devi

Gouri Debnath

Gouri Debnath from Tripura a 35-year-old mother of a 13-year-old son, a widow is the only bread earner for her family of three including her mother also. For her, the daily challenge was to manage household expenses with her limited earnings. Now, her means of livelihood is the Silai School that she runs from her home in Poang Bari in Tripura's Sepahijala district. Located 50 km, from the state capital Agartala, her Silai School has been functional since 2014. She was chosen by SIDBI under their entrepreneurship support scheme to receive the SIDBI grant. By using the grant, she bought sewing machines and expanded her enterprise. At an early age, when she was in Class 7, she lost her father. Due to the demise of her father and the breadwinner of her family, she could not study after Class 10. She got married to a man, who worked as a private driver, in 2007, and was blessed with a son in 2008. But she was dealt another cruel blow with the death of her husband in a road accident. To make matters worse, she had no support at all from her in-laws. She came back to her parents home in South Nalchar three months after her husband's death. She and her son have been living with her mother ever since. She needed to earn money and did not have any source of income, so she started working in a tailors shop in a nearby market. But the income received was not enough to meet the needs of her family. Her son was growing up and her mother had developed multiple ailments due to old age. She joined the USHA Silai School Project in January 2014, as one of their trainees. This brought new hope to her and her family. After training, she started a school in her own home. She is promoting her school through her Self Help Group and other women's associations. She has the support of the community. She has already taught 22 girls, and another batch of 6 learners have just joined the rolls. Today, she earns more than Rs. 10,000 on average from the school, and from the tailoring orders she receives. She also repairs sewing machines for other women in her area.

Leela Devi

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 5

Sushmita Saha

Jyotsna Sardar

Preeti Kushwaha

Sunita Devi Kumawat

Danishta

Ruby Devi

Ruby Devi moved to Delhi from Bihar with her husband in the year 1999 in search of better livelihood options. They struggled up to 2 years in Delhi for a suitable source of income but could not find anything else, except daily wage worker. In the year 2001 they decided to move to Chandigarh in search of some respectable work. They got shelter in Bapudham Colony, an urban slum of Chandigarh’s Sector 26. They somehow managed to work but in the year 2005 Ruby suffered an unknown illness which continued till 2008. She was totally bed ridden and there was very limited income of her husband, so she could not get the proper treatment. Ruby admits she decided not to live long and she had strong feeling to quit her life as it has been enough and most of her husband’s income was spending on her treatment. Ruby always had a dream to be a teacher but she could not complete her education after Class 9 as her father had to feed a family of six persons, so he was not able to spend on her education. She joined many classes for sewing and stitching and somehow groomed herself so that she can deliver quality work to their customers. It was the year 2015 when Ruby was working as a peer Educator in HIV-AIDS project where she got to know about Usha Silai School program. Ruby joined this training and on the very first day she learned the machine repairing skills. On day 2-3 she learned drafting skills from the trainer of USHA International Limited. She said that she was always a student at any centre when she was learning sewing and stitching but this was the USHA Silai School training where she was honored as a teacher after completion of training. She has trained more than 100 students and earns a handsome income of Rs. 20,000 per monthts. After getting the new identity of a Silai School Teacher form Usha International, Ruby was approached by Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh and she also works as Community President with Municipal Corporation, where she facilitate local community to get Aadhar Card, Ration Card, Loans, etc. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Ruby is imparting trainings in two batches of 5-6 girls from her flat keeping in mind social distancing. Ruby also got the order to make 2,500 masks from Municipal Corporation for which she was paid Rs. 9,500.

Jameela Bano

Bharti Kailsh Jadhav

Savita Charan Bhoir

Pnunchok Dolma

Zara Bano

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 4

Raziaben Mehboobbhai Pinjara

Santosh Kumavat

Sunita Devi Kumawat

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 3

Raziaben Mehboobbhai Pinjara

A. Metildamary

E. Iruthayamary

Rekhaben Solanki

Santosh Kumawat

Sunita Devi Kumawat

Ayesha Mondal

Laboni Baidya

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 2

Rubina Begum
Rubina Begum from Nithari Village, had been struggling to move on in life since 2006 gruesome serial killings came to light.She slowly regained her confidence after joining USHA Silai School and then became the first women in her family to earn a living.Read More
Soni
Soni lost her 10-year old sister in the 2006 Nithari serial murders. Life came to a standstill for Soni post the incident. It wasn’t until she got training in USHA Silai School in their village that normalcy returned to Soni's life and she found peace. Read More
Phuliya Bai
Madhya Pradesh's Phuliya Bai had a limited source of income. Her life turned around when she joined USHA Silai School programme. She earns Rs 3000 monthly, has been able to finance her daughter's education and gained the respect of others in her village.Read More
Rekha Rahangdale
Rekha family’s earning was insufficient to meet everyone’s need. After Rekha joined the USHA Silai School Programme, she started her own school and generated income. Today, Rekha’s husband and mother in-law are giving her all the support she needs to expand her business. Read More
Poonam
Despite being a graduate she couldn’t find a job of her choice. But her in-laws did not let this become a hurdle for her, instead they guided her to a new track to achieve her goals. She opened her own silai school and is now training other women of her village to become independent. Read More
Lajjawati
Despite completing her graduation, Lajjawati, was struggling to find a job. Making ends meet was proving to be the biggest hurdle. But she did not give up, and decided to do something of her own. She opened her own Silai School. Now, she's a teacher and trains other women. Read More
Rintu Gogoi
Rintu Gogoi is wife of an agricultural labor and mother of two boys. Her husband being the single earning member, they struggled to pay the school fees of their children. Then, she came forward and associated herself with Ushal Silai School to manage the household expenses. Read More
Mumtaz Begum
Mumtaz Begum's family of five was living a fairly content life until 2008, the year her husband passed away. As the years went by, the expenses became hard to manage. It was then that she got associated with Usha Silai School to bring in a regular source of income to support her family. Read More
Shivananda Kothurwad
Shivananda Nagnathrao Kothurwad is separated from her husband and lives with her 2 children. She belongs to Sultanpur village, Maharashtra. Presently she stays with her parents and pays for boarding and lodging. Before starting the Silai School, she gave tuitions to students and completed an embroidery course. Read More
Madhuri Karn
Madhuri's husband was abusive, and an alcoholic. He started beating her up the very next day of their wedding. She was just 18 when she got married and was perpetually living in fear. She moved back to parents' home when she couldn't take it anymore. Now, she is 28, and a mother to a boy who goes to school. Read More
Naseema Bano
Naseema Bano lives in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. Her father worked as a tractor mechanic and her mother would pitch in financially with switching jobs. Her parents tried their best to send her and her five sisters to school, but none of them could complete their schooling. Naseema managed to study till Class 10. Read More
Kalpana Kamadi
Kalpana Kamadi, from Dhule District, Maharashtra, lost her son as she couldn’t afford the treatment. This incident jolted her into working towards financial stability for her family. She now runs her own Silai school and trains other women in her village. She is now respectful called 'madam' in her village. She recently bought her own car on installments.
Read More
Nazira Ghazi
24-year-old Nazira Ghazi a resident of Durgapur, Kolkata was forced to marry after she completed her 10th grade. But she defied societal pressures, convinced her parents against early marriage and joined Usha Silai School. After years of hard work, Nazira financed her own education, and also supported her family. Read More
Chhotibai Sahebrao Chaure
Chhotibai Sahebrao Chaure, 32-year old from Dali Samba village of Sakri block, Dhule district of Maharashtra has been running her own Silai School since 2014. Till date, Chhotibai has trained 28 women and now aims to increase the number of sewing machines in her class to give training to more women.
Read More
Pratibha Pravin Khonde
Pratibha Pravin Khonde, from Sakri Tehsil in Maharashtra trained at the Silai School and started her own school within her house to not just earn money but also to enable other women to earn their own livelihood. Many of Pratibha's students are now teaching other women and becoming financially independent.
Read More
Lata Phale
35-year-old Lata, who lives, Pune, Maharashtra, has two children. Her husband is a farmer and Lata also helps the family by working on the farm. However, it is difficult for her family to survive on agricultural income only. Lata knew a little about sewing before she was selected for the USHA Silai School program. Read More
Gauri Jiwane
Gauri Jivane, 42-year-old, runs her Silai School in Shivangaon village, Nagpur, Maharashtra. Gauri is a widow, her son is doing MBA and daughter studies in a school. Despite her poor background, Gauri managed a graduation degree for herself and worked as a clerk in a Co-operative Bank before her marriage. Read More

Adopt a Silai School

Do you want to be a part of the huge change that Usha Silai School is bringing about in the lives of millions of rural women? With just a simple click of a button, you can now contribute towards the opening of an Usha Silai School or support various other aspects of the school.

About The Initiative

Kushalta Ke Kadam, an initiative by USHA Silai School and NDTV has entered its eighth season. The aim is to empower more women across rural India by teaching them sewing skills and helping them open new doors of opportunities for themselves. The initiative encourages rural women to become financially independent and entrepreneurs by taking up sewing and training others in their respective communities.

Since 2011, the USHA Silai School initiative has trained more than 12 lakh rural women through over 33,000 Silai schools, spanning over 20,751 villages across India.

The women earn Rs. 4,000 – 5,000 per month on an average, with the highest recorded monthly earning being Rs. 84,000 in a month. This earning works as a catalyst towards building their self-confidence, reducing gender inequities, and raising their stature within their families and in society at large.

Know More

Latest Stories

Usha Silai School Program Creating An Impact Beyond Economic: IIT-Delhi Impact Assessment Report
Team NDTV | Wednesday April 24, 2024
By the end of 2022, for every Rs. 100 invested in the training of women, the Usha Silai School generated an average of Rs. 8,300, reported IIT-Delhi study
Vardi Ka Samman: Upcycling Uniforms Of Retired Defence Personnel
Team NDTV | Wednesday January 31, 2024
The partnership between Usha and the Sewaj Neesim Foundation is empowering women and giving old uniforms a new identity, a new purpose, and a new pride
Usha Partners With CRPF Family Welfare Association To Upskill Women
Team NDTV | Tuesday January 30, 2024
Among the aims and objectives of the CRPF Family Welfare Association is to skill the CRPF wives and give them a sense of accomplishment
Usha And Army Wives Welfare Association Transforming Lives Through Vocational Training
Team NDTV | Monday January 29, 2024
Renowned for its skill development program in sewing and tailoring, Usha's training cum production centre is enabling the wives of Army personnel at the village level to become financially independent
Usha Silai School Promotes Lost Traditional Sports 'Kathi Samu' And 'Karra Samu'
Team NDTV | Saturday January 27, 2024
Used for both offense and defence, Karra Samu and Kathi Samu are incredibly dynamic and visually captivating martial art forms
Usha Working To Revive 'Mardani Khel' In Maharashtra
Team NDTV | Saturday January 27, 2024
Usha Play has teamed up with the Kasturba Gandhi Memorial Trust, Tulja Bhavani Mardani Khel, and Prashikshan va Sanskrutik Seva Sanstha, Pune to revive an old indigenous sport of Maharashtra - Mardani Khel

In Pics

Usha Silai School Programme Stitching Together Empowerment And Economic Growth Across India: IIT Delhi Study

Empowering women across diverse backgrounds, the Usha Silai School programme not only offers sewing and stitching skills but also fosters inclusivity and economic independence. A recent independent study by IIT Delhi highlights its profound impact, showcasing how this initiative not only transforms individual lives but also contributes significantly to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Take a look!

Skillful Collaboration: Usha Partners With Indian Armed Forces To Empower Women

The Indian Armed Forces have always been at the forefront when it comes to safeguarding the nation's security. Members of the Armed forces have dedicated their lives to the service of the people in more ways than one. Along with protecting the nation, the Indian Armed Forces are building empowered communities across the country. Let's take a glimpse into the collaboration between Usha Silai Schools and various centers, aimed at supporting Army wives and family members with skill development and vocational training.

Usha Silai Schools Reviving India's Traditional Sports For A Healthy Community Legacy

India's traditional sports like Adimurai, Mardani Khel, and Karra Samu and Kathi Samu, are now making a comeback, thanks to Usha. Here is how Usha is promoting a healthy and active lifestyle while strengthening the community's legacy tied to these sports, with the active participation of Usha Silai School women.

Usha Silai App Revolutionises The Art Of Sewing With Digital Learning

Women who may have limited access to traditional educational resources are now using smartphones to learn the art of sewing through Usha Silai Mobile App. The women are making the best use of platforms like Google Meet, Zoom and WhatsApp to discuss sewing content and community issues. Take a look!

From 'Gatka' To 'Turai Kar', Usha Champions Revival Of Traditional Sports Across India

From reintroducing ancient martial art forms like "Gatka" in Haryana to organising community games such as "Turai Kar" in Kashmir, USHA is not only promoting physical well-being but also reconnecting communities across India with their forgotten traditional sports. Take a look!

Usha's Partnerships With Government Bodies Help Unleash The Potential Of Rural Women

From North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) to Rourkela Steel Plant, the Usha Silai School Programme has collaborated with many government institutions and entities which has proven to be immensely significant in impacting the lives of rural women positively in many parts of India. Take a look.

Usha Sewing Centres Empowering Women In Remote Reaches Of India

From Shilpi Das to Mansoora Banoo, Usha Silai Schools are fostering financial independence among women, transforming them into self-reliant entrepreneurs. Take a look.

Meet The Super Achievers Of Usha Silai School, Fostering Financial Independence Among Women

In the past 12 years, over 33,000 Silai Schools have been opened. Some of the Silai School women have shown unmatched resilience and will to transform their lives. They have come a long way in the Silai School journey and are now looked up to as role models by other girls and women in their communities. Let's meet some of them.

How Usha Silai School Programme Is Collaborating With Different Organisations To Upskill Women

On one hand, Usha Silai School has collaborated with Meghalaya State Rural Livelihoods Society (MSRLS) to provide women with employment opportunities while also promoting environmental conservation, on the other hand, it has partnered with the Blind People's Association in Ahmedabad to upskill women with disabilities.

Usha Silai Schools Empowering Tribal Women Through Traditional Art Forms Across India

Usha Silai Schools are providing comprehensive training to tribal women across India, home to several indigenous tribes, by fusing their traditional art forms with embroidery. Take a look.

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 7

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 6

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 5

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 4

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 3

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 2

Adopt a Silai School

About The Initiative

Latest Stories

In Pics

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