Here Is How USHA Training And Production Centres Are Transforming Lives

The training and production centre model came was established in 2015, and the benefit to the women associated with it was immediately apparent. The training and production centre is specially designed to give advance training of 15 days to women- 2 days mechanical and 13 days of sewing and stitching to the women.

A training and production centre of the Bhagwan Singh Memorial Foundation, in the village of Rasulpur, in Nawanshahr district of Punjab, is engaged in various socio-economic welfare activities in the region along with empowering the Silai women.

As part of the training and production centre model, the USHA Silai School programme brings its expertise of specialised training, customised to the needs of the partner, which could be anything from bags and uniforms to accessories, garments and so on. The training is then given at two levels - basic and advanced - depending on the skill of the learners.

Galaxy Enterprise in partnership with the USHA Silai School Program opened a training and production centre at Tura, Shillong.

The training centre not only provided an additional skill to 30 beneficiaries but also an alternative and sustainable source of livelihood.

After training, Galaxy Enterprise appointed a coordinator to handhold beneficiaries and manage centre on a day-to-day basis. The women entrepreneurs received orders from the local market and delivered around 30 nighties in April this year, prior to the lockdown and collectively earned Rs. 12,000. Women at the production centre also stitched petticoats and earned Rs. 6000. Currently, an order of 50 frocks is in the final stage which will bring them Rs. 25,000.

NGO Sankalp, in collaboration with the USHA Silai school program is another organisation that is making efforts to create potential women entrepreneurs. The centre established by the NGO is the only skill development institute in 5 village panchayats. It has created 20 women entrepreneurs, and distributed 8,000 masks in nearby villages, free of cost during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This centre typifies the programme's hub and spoke model, where the centre is the hub, and the benefits spread outwards to all those associated with it.