USHA Silai School Is Empowering Tribal Women By Making Them Entreprenuers

USHA Silai School is a community-based programme that aims to empower rural women to learn to stitch and become entrepreneurs.

Tribal women have inherent talents and abundant creativity. And now, with the USHA Silai Schools, they are getting an ecosystem that recognises their potential and nurtures their skills.

48-year-old Diparani Payung, from the Mising tribe, joined the training programme of USHA Silai school at Majuli in Assam to enhance her income. After 7 days of training, she opened her Silai school. Now she earns Rs 8,000 a month from the Silai school by upskilling 36 girls.

Mrinalini Dutta joined Diparani's Silai school in April 2013. Before joining the school, Mrinalini didn't know anything about stitching. But it was Dipa who guided her in picking up the new skill.

USHA's Silai School helps tribal women in acquiring new skills and to become economically independent. It is empowering them by enhancing their confidence and decision-making ability.

There are over 30,000 USHA Silai Schools in 17,000 villages, spread across 600 districts in India. From the world's largest river island in Assam to a small tribal village in Ladakh, the coming alive of the dreams and aspirations of the women of India are what transform this simple intervention into a lasting legacy.

Aqila Aqtar would do a little stitching earlier, but after coming to USHA Silai school, she learned a lot and enjoyed the soft skills training the most. She says, that it boosted her confidence and empowered her to become self-sufficient.

USHA believes that it is vital to empower tribal women because traditionally they have had limited access to the outside world and the training programme takes into account their special needs and customs.

Gram Utthan, an NGO has been working with USHA for the past 11 years in helping women from villages move ahead in life. Women are selected based on a little prior knowledge of sewing and their interest in opening a Silai school. Then the names of the candidates are shortlisted and shared with USHA. Once the list of selected candidates is finalised a training is organised after which the trained women open their own Silai schools.

NGO Gram Utthan and USHA, have opened new avenues of employment for Odisha's Salma Hemram. She is getting trained at the USHA Silai center, along with 15 other women. Salma now knows how to get ahead in life, thanks to the training program. She desires to teach these skills to the ladies in her village and generate employment for them.