USHA Partners With CRPF And Rajasthan Government For Skill Building

CWA and USHA have collaborated to skill and generate income prospects for the families of CRPF personnel. The USHA-CWA partnership aims to help in their socio-economic empowerment.

Under the USHA-CWA partnership, Silai training centres are being established in 12 locations of CRPF for the wives and widows of CRPF jawans.

Currently, 15 ladies are being trained at USHA-CWA Silai School and many other women who are interested will be trained later. These 15 women will be given advanced training. After that, three women will be selected to be trained as master trainers. They can then start training other women and earn money for themselves.

CRPF welfare association in partnership with USHA has provided a sewing machine to each woman.

This is an advanced level production training of the selected Silai Heroes and for 15 days they follow a set syllabus that has targets and goals to be achieved and a level of proficiency to be attained.

The women of CRPF are learning a new thing each day. For some, the training is the utilisation of spare time while for others it is a chance to make name for themselves.

So far 90 women in total have been trained and certified from six centres in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Tamil Nadu.

The Government of Rajasthan has also partnered with the USHA Silai School program along with an NGO called Unnayan Samiti to train 100 women in four districts across the state- Jaipur, Kota, Dholpur and Pratapgarh.

The partnership with the State Government of Rajasthan is through the Rajasthan Knowledge Corporation Limited (RKCL) which is a public sector undertaking of the state which works on empowering and skilling rural women.

The learners will be provided with sewing skill training and will also learn how to repair and run the sewing machines. They are expected to go back to their villages and become Silai School teachers who will in turn further train other rural women in sewing skills.

Unnayan Samiti, an NGO that works on women's issues, especially health and social empowerment is a key facilitator of the partnership between USHA and the Government of Rajasthan. It has played an important role in identifying women and bringing them to the USHA Silai School camp. It also ensures there are no dropouts during the training.

The NGO will also do a follow up to see that women practice the skills learnt here and will be a monitoring agency following the work of these women even when they go back to their homes.

Shyam Sunder Sharma, Program Coordinator of Unnayan Samiti explained that the criteria for selecting a woman is that if a woman is needy, a widow, if she is physically challenged, or if she belongs to a poor family, and is interested in stitching and earning a living for herself.

The Silai School will not only equip them to stitch and sew but they will also be able to train other rural women for a small fee which will be an additional income generation model for them.

For many women, this camp is the first time they have stepped out of their homes. For many, it is a time to meet other women like themselves and work towards a better future.