Here Is How Businesses Are Helping USHA Silai School Create New Livelihood Opportunities For Women In Need

NEEPCO and USHA joined hands in the North East region of the country to build new livelihood opportunities for women in rural areas. As part of their CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) programme, NEEPCO has helped many women by developing their skills in various techniques of stitching and encouraged them to become entrepreneurs.

Rekhamoni Bora, a 45-year-old resident of a village is in Dibrugarh district of Assam is one of the beneficiaries of -NEEPCO-USHA partnership. She said to NDTV, 'We are a five-member family that was completely dependent on farming for a livelihood. But farming is not reliable and we struggled a lot. But I got a ray of hope when I got selected for USHA Silai School programme. The course was very helpful and now I am contributing to the household income with the help of the skill of stitching I leant at the silai school.'

Ms. Bora who lives with her husband, two children and mother-in-law, is now able to earn Rs. 3500 per month on an average which is helping the family meet their livelihood expense to a great extent. She now passing on her learnings to her daughter with a hope of securing her future by teaching her a skill that she could use as a means of livelihood.

Along with women in Dibrugarh district, USHA Silai School is also training women in Morigaon district of Assam. In Morigaon, USHA had partnered with Dalima Bharat Foundation. This partnership aims to open 20 silai schools across the district.

Benefitting from Dalmia-USHA collaboration is Binu Deka Doloi, who opened her own silai school in March 2018. This has changed the life of Ms Doloi who is married to a farmer. She said, 'Farming is not a fixed, steady source of income. We have recurring floods and dry seasons in the area. We lose crops in the extremely wet and extremely dry seasons because of which we struggled to meet our expenses when our crops fail which made it hard to feed the family and pay my daughter's school fee. Even if I cannot compensate entirely for crop losses, I earn enough to feed my family and pay my daughter's school fee.'

After developing skills of women of Assam in the Northeast, USHA Silai School initiative went to Maharashtra in the western peninsular region of the country. In Maharashtra, USHA collaborated with Alfa Laval and started a Training cum Production Centre' for the women of Velvand village in Pune district.

This training and production centre has become a source of livelihood and hopes for women in this remote village as they did not have any other source of livelihood before USHA Silai School started its initiative.

Women, at this centre, are being provided with training on stitching clothes for men, women and children along with uniforms for schools and corporations.