The USHA Silai Training and Production Centres are central facility created especially for rural women to assemble, get trained in sewing and stitching and also make products for the market. The Bhagwan Singh Memorial Foundation in Punjab, SANKALP NGO in Odisha and Galaxy enterprise in Meghalaya are three such centres that are empowering the rural women and making a difference.
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.
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.
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.
Kushalta Ke Kadam, an initiative by NDTV and USHA, aims at empowering women from rural India and encourages them to become entrepreneurs by taking up sewing and training others in their respective communities. Since 2011 Usha Silai Campaign has trained more than 3.95 lakh rural women within five years, with 17,000 Silai schools, spanning over 9272 Indian villages in India.
Kushalta Ke Kadam in Season 4 has returned with new goals and vision. The new season will witness the establishment of the new cluster in Kashmir, apart from the existing four clusters setup last year. The women from volatile Kashmir will work with well-known fashion designer Rohit Bal and get an unique opportunity to learn from him and make clothes for him. The work done by the Silai School women will be presented at Lakme Fashion week 2019.
During the COVID-19 pandemic when people were struggling to earn a living, several women across the country benefitted from USHAs 'Adopt A Silai School' programme
With an increase in the number of Silai Schools across the country, a need for more trainers to deliver quality training was realised and this led to the concept of Master Trainers, which has now been in practice for a few years
Silai Hero Sweta Sudarshan is the face of the joint initiative of USHA and UNFPA to take life skills to women in rural areas
USHA has been training rural women in sewing and stitching for 11 years. Now, with UNFPA, it is providing life skill education to help them earn a better income
USHA and Balrampur Chini Mills Limited have come together to help women in rural areas from Uttar Pradesh to open their own USHA Silai Schools and become financially independent
USHA and Aavas Foundation have joined hands to promote skill development among rural women in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra