Life After Silai School: This Is How The Rape Survivors Are Becoming Empowered And An Inspiration For Others

With steady steps and a determination to walk towards a better future, Maya (name changed), a rape survivor and a victim of trafficking, who was abandoned by her husband and her parents after the crime, has defeated all odds and has become a trainer at USHA Silai School that runs in a remote village in Madhya Pradesh. She told NDTV that because of the stigma of rape, she was struggling to live with dignity and even today, after seven years, her husband's family do not allow her to meet with her children. While Maya is still battling to break the stigma, she has become an inspiration for learners at USHA Silai Schools.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country and a lockdown was imposed across the nation by the government in order to break the chain of the transmission, Maya's work was affected but she did not lose hope. Instead, she then started taking online classes and taught her students about the right technique of making masks after receiving a special one-month long training from USHA. This not only helped her continue earning a livelihood but also helped her learners face the economic crisis caused by the pandemic without much problem.

Asha (name changed) is another rape survivor who has stitched a better future for herself through skill development at USHA Silai School. While Asha and her family had to face stigma from their community in the village, the attitudes began to change and the acceptance started to trickle in as she began earning a livelihood through stitching and became financially independent.

According to Ashif Shaikh, Founder and Director, Jan Sahas Sansthan, a non-governmental organisation based in Madhya Pradesh that works towards promoting development and protection of socially excluded communities, the USHA Silai School model is not just helping in the economic rehabilitation of rape survivors but in their social rehabilitation as well.

Mr. Shaikh said that to challenge the stigma, it is important that the survivor is rehabilitated back into that same society and can work there itself. This will educate people that none of what happened to her was the woman's fault, he said.