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Meet The Entrepreneurs

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 9

Saroj Namdev

Sobiyamari

Sunita

Sakuben Ahir

Jyoti Rani

Kaneez Fatima

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 8

Durgarani

Lalita Rai

Rosalyne Tiewmon

Vandana Gadag

Kavitha

Shilpi Das

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 7

Diparani Payung

Matilda Mary

Rita Devi

Tulsi Shah

Ledakijuh Nongtdu

Yurthingwon Ronra Shimray

Yurthingwon Ronra Shimray lives with her husband and three kids- one daughter and two sons. She got married in the year 2013. Ms Shimray has been the victim of domestic violence by an alcoholic husband. He also sold her goods and belongings for money so that he could buy the liquor. It was very hard for Ms Shimray, mentally and financially. Subsequently, she learnt to walk away when his temper flared up. In due course she came to know about the USHA Classical Silai School Training Programme through another Silai school teacher. Post training, Ms Shimray started her school on 8th Sept 2019 and managed her family with her earnings. In the meantime, she kept her husband in a rehabilitation centre and fortunately, he got back to his normal life. Now he also helps in her business. She is going ahead with both the teaching and garment making as per community demand. Till now, she has trained 25 learners with a 3 month basic course. Presently, she has two learners enrolled in her school. Above this, she has three women working with her. She earns more than Rs. 12,000 per month from sewing and stitching together. Sometimes she got bulk orders too. During COVID-19, Ms Shimray thought of recycling old bags from different villages nearest to her Silai school. She started discussion with her learners and shared her idea of collecting old clothes and making bags. Ms Shimray executed the new idea in June 2021 from her school in New Canaan village and then spread her collection of old clothes from nearby villages including Yaingangpokpi, Murei, Wunghon. Two women from nearby villages joined her in collecting old clothes and stitching bags. After collecting old clothes, they sort them according to different types of fabrics, colours and types of garments. Following this, they wash and iron the clothes before drafting, cutting and stitching them into bags. Her value-added work was well-received by the community and the nearby market, and she shifted her school to Yaingangpokpi in November 2021, where she started working with three other women. These women are being paid Rs. 30 per bag by Ms Shimray. Apart from bags, they are also making dresses for children. During the last financial year 2021-22, Ms Shimray sold around 200 bags and earned Rs. 25,000 which is an additional income to her regular earning from teaching and general job-work.

Gulab Jahan

Rinku Mondal

Tinku Mondal

Binita Bhatt

Swarnlata Panda

Salma Bano

Suman Devi Kumawat

Varsha

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 6

Gudia Devi

Bharti Kohade

Paulina Tuti

Gouri Das

Kalawati Sharma

Jayashree Janardhan Ghodvinde

Savita Thakur

Bishakha Mahanta

Mamta Bhargav

Hasuben Mohanbhai Rabari

Hasuben Mohanbhai Rabari lives in Kutch, Gujarat. She comes from Rabari community. Due to non-awareness on education and continuously migration, she could not get education. Since she is from shepherded community her parents had sheep and goats and used to migrate from one place to another in search of grass and water. They have migrated to various places of Gujarat like Vadodara, Baruch, Ankleshwar among others when she was child. The migration occurs due to less or no rain in the district. As a child, she had to look after and care the lambs. She learnt the hand crafting from her mother and relatives. When she got expertise in the embroidery work, she started taking work from others in the community for wages. She got married 17 years ago. Her husband also has sheep and goats. He grazes them nearby and stay with the herds. He comes home occasionally. After marriage, she used to quilt to help others, but not for money. She and her family settled in Kutch as it is their native place. She has 2 children- 21 years old daughter and 18 years old son. She was selected for USHA Silai School training program in a year 2013. She is expert in embroidery and other craft work but to add more value on products and increase its attraction she started sewing. She is now making different products like suf embroidered dupattas, rabari embroidered stoles, flap bag rabari, small pouch, clutch rabari and many other such items. She is not only making embroidery work but also sewing to make final products. She is also working as coordinator of Kala Raksha voluntarily to check the quality of work being done by others. She is expert in making design and samples. She has trained 8 girls and 4 women of the village. She used to charge nominal amount for the training Rs. 50 to 100. The 8 girls whom she trained; got married and they have continued the sewing at their in-law’s house. As per her calculation she earns about Rs. 10000 per month from both hand embroidery and tailoring but major part comes from tailoring.

Kusum Devi

Chandam Sunita Devi

Phemo Manham

Prabha Dhanga

Sandna Devi

Gouri Debnath

Gouri Debnath from Tripura a 35-year-old mother of a 13-year-old son, a widow is the only bread earner for her family of three including her mother also. For her, the daily challenge was to manage household expenses with her limited earnings. Now, her means of livelihood is the Silai School that she runs from her home in Poang Bari in Tripura's Sepahijala district. Located 50 km, from the state capital Agartala, her Silai School has been functional since 2014. She was chosen by SIDBI under their entrepreneurship support scheme to receive the SIDBI grant. By using the grant, she bought sewing machines and expanded her enterprise. At an early age, when she was in Class 7, she lost her father. Due to the demise of her father and the breadwinner of her family, she could not study after Class 10. She got married to a man, who worked as a private driver, in 2007, and was blessed with a son in 2008. But she was dealt another cruel blow with the death of her husband in a road accident. To make matters worse, she had no support at all from her in-laws. She came back to her parents home in South Nalchar three months after her husband's death. She and her son have been living with her mother ever since. She needed to earn money and did not have any source of income, so she started working in a tailors shop in a nearby market. But the income received was not enough to meet the needs of her family. Her son was growing up and her mother had developed multiple ailments due to old age. She joined the USHA Silai School Project in January 2014, as one of their trainees. This brought new hope to her and her family. After training, she started a school in her own home. She is promoting her school through her Self Help Group and other women's associations. She has the support of the community. She has already taught 22 girls, and another batch of 6 learners have just joined the rolls. Today, she earns more than Rs. 10,000 on average from the school, and from the tailoring orders she receives. She also repairs sewing machines for other women in her area.

Leela Devi

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 5

Sushmita Saha

Jyotsna Sardar

Preeti Kushwaha

Sunita Devi Kumawat

Danishta

Ruby Devi

Ruby Devi moved to Delhi from Bihar with her husband in the year 1999 in search of better livelihood options. They struggled up to 2 years in Delhi for a suitable source of income but could not find anything else, except daily wage worker. In the year 2001 they decided to move to Chandigarh in search of some respectable work. They got shelter in Bapudham Colony, an urban slum of Chandigarh’s Sector 26. They somehow managed to work but in the year 2005 Ruby suffered an unknown illness which continued till 2008. She was totally bed ridden and there was very limited income of her husband, so she could not get the proper treatment. Ruby admits she decided not to live long and she had strong feeling to quit her life as it has been enough and most of her husband’s income was spending on her treatment. Ruby always had a dream to be a teacher but she could not complete her education after Class 9 as her father had to feed a family of six persons, so he was not able to spend on her education. She joined many classes for sewing and stitching and somehow groomed herself so that she can deliver quality work to their customers. It was the year 2015 when Ruby was working as a peer Educator in HIV-AIDS project where she got to know about Usha Silai School program. Ruby joined this training and on the very first day she learned the machine repairing skills. On day 2-3 she learned drafting skills from the trainer of USHA International Limited. She said that she was always a student at any centre when she was learning sewing and stitching but this was the USHA Silai School training where she was honored as a teacher after completion of training. She has trained more than 100 students and earns a handsome income of Rs. 20,000 per monthts. After getting the new identity of a Silai School Teacher form Usha International, Ruby was approached by Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh and she also works as Community President with Municipal Corporation, where she facilitate local community to get Aadhar Card, Ration Card, Loans, etc. During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Ruby is imparting trainings in two batches of 5-6 girls from her flat keeping in mind social distancing. Ruby also got the order to make 2,500 masks from Municipal Corporation for which she was paid Rs. 9,500.

Jameela Bano

Bharti Kailsh Jadhav

Savita Charan Bhoir

Pnunchok Dolma

Zara Bano

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 4

Raziaben Mehboobbhai Pinjara

Santosh Kumavat

Sunita Devi Kumawat

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 3

Raziaben Mehboobbhai Pinjara

A. Metildamary

E. Iruthayamary

Rekhaben Solanki

Santosh Kumawat

Sunita Devi Kumawat

Ayesha Mondal

Laboni Baidya

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 2

Rubina Begum
Rubina Begum from Nithari Village, had been struggling to move on in life since 2006 gruesome serial killings came to light.She slowly regained her confidence after joining USHA Silai School and then became the first women in her family to earn a living.Read More
Soni
Soni lost her 10-year old sister in the 2006 Nithari serial murders. Life came to a standstill for Soni post the incident. It wasn’t until she got training in USHA Silai School in their village that normalcy returned to Soni's life and she found peace. Read More
Phuliya Bai
Madhya Pradesh's Phuliya Bai had a limited source of income. Her life turned around when she joined USHA Silai School programme. She earns Rs 3000 monthly, has been able to finance her daughter's education and gained the respect of others in her village.Read More
Rekha Rahangdale
Rekha family’s earning was insufficient to meet everyone’s need. After Rekha joined the USHA Silai School Programme, she started her own school and generated income. Today, Rekha’s husband and mother in-law are giving her all the support she needs to expand her business. Read More
Poonam
Despite being a graduate she couldn’t find a job of her choice. But her in-laws did not let this become a hurdle for her, instead they guided her to a new track to achieve her goals. She opened her own silai school and is now training other women of her village to become independent. Read More
Lajjawati
Despite completing her graduation, Lajjawati, was struggling to find a job. Making ends meet was proving to be the biggest hurdle. But she did not give up, and decided to do something of her own. She opened her own Silai School. Now, she's a teacher and trains other women. Read More
Rintu Gogoi
Rintu Gogoi is wife of an agricultural labor and mother of two boys. Her husband being the single earning member, they struggled to pay the school fees of their children. Then, she came forward and associated herself with Ushal Silai School to manage the household expenses. Read More
Mumtaz Begum
Mumtaz Begum's family of five was living a fairly content life until 2008, the year her husband passed away. As the years went by, the expenses became hard to manage. It was then that she got associated with Usha Silai School to bring in a regular source of income to support her family. Read More
Shivananda Kothurwad
Shivananda Nagnathrao Kothurwad is separated from her husband and lives with her 2 children. She belongs to Sultanpur village, Maharashtra. Presently she stays with her parents and pays for boarding and lodging. Before starting the Silai School, she gave tuitions to students and completed an embroidery course. Read More
Madhuri Karn
Madhuri's husband was abusive, and an alcoholic. He started beating her up the very next day of their wedding. She was just 18 when she got married and was perpetually living in fear. She moved back to parents' home when she couldn't take it anymore. Now, she is 28, and a mother to a boy who goes to school. Read More
Naseema Bano
Naseema Bano lives in Amethi, Uttar Pradesh. Her father worked as a tractor mechanic and her mother would pitch in financially with switching jobs. Her parents tried their best to send her and her five sisters to school, but none of them could complete their schooling. Naseema managed to study till Class 10. Read More
Kalpana Kamadi
Kalpana Kamadi, from Dhule District, Maharashtra, lost her son as she couldn’t afford the treatment. This incident jolted her into working towards financial stability for her family. She now runs her own Silai school and trains other women in her village. She is now respectful called 'madam' in her village. She recently bought her own car on installments.
Read More
Nazira Ghazi
24-year-old Nazira Ghazi a resident of Durgapur, Kolkata was forced to marry after she completed her 10th grade. But she defied societal pressures, convinced her parents against early marriage and joined Usha Silai School. After years of hard work, Nazira financed her own education, and also supported her family. Read More
Chhotibai Sahebrao Chaure
Chhotibai Sahebrao Chaure, 32-year old from Dali Samba village of Sakri block, Dhule district of Maharashtra has been running her own Silai School since 2014. Till date, Chhotibai has trained 28 women and now aims to increase the number of sewing machines in her class to give training to more women.
Read More
Pratibha Pravin Khonde
Pratibha Pravin Khonde, from Sakri Tehsil in Maharashtra trained at the Silai School and started her own school within her house to not just earn money but also to enable other women to earn their own livelihood. Many of Pratibha's students are now teaching other women and becoming financially independent.
Read More
Lata Phale
35-year-old Lata, who lives, Pune, Maharashtra, has two children. Her husband is a farmer and Lata also helps the family by working on the farm. However, it is difficult for her family to survive on agricultural income only. Lata knew a little about sewing before she was selected for the USHA Silai School program. Read More
Gauri Jiwane
Gauri Jivane, 42-year-old, runs her Silai School in Shivangaon village, Nagpur, Maharashtra. Gauri is a widow, her son is doing MBA and daughter studies in a school. Despite her poor background, Gauri managed a graduation degree for herself and worked as a clerk in a Co-operative Bank before her marriage. Read More

Adopt a Silai School

Do you want to be a part of the huge change that Usha Silai School is bringing about in the lives of millions of rural women? With just a simple click of a button, you can now contribute towards the opening of an Usha Silai School or support various other aspects of the school.

About The Initiative

Kushalta Ke Kadam, an initiative by USHA Silai School and NDTV has entered its eighth season. The aim is to empower more women across rural India by teaching them sewing skills and helping them open new doors of opportunities for themselves. The initiative encourages rural women to become financially independent and entrepreneurs by taking up sewing and training others in their respective communities.

Since 2011, the USHA Silai School initiative has trained more than 12 lakh rural women through over 33,000 Silai schools, spanning over 20,751 villages across India.

The women earn Rs. 4,000 – 5,000 per month on an average, with the highest recorded monthly earning being Rs. 84,000 in a month. This earning works as a catalyst towards building their self-confidence, reducing gender inequities, and raising their stature within their families and in society at large.

Know More

Latest Stories

Stitching Independence: Inside USHA's Silai Movement Empowering Women Nationwide
Written by Team NDTV | Friday December 12, 2025
USHAs Silai School Programme empowers women across India by turning sewing into independence. Women become trainers and leaders, transforming their lives and communities through skills, confidence, and income
How USHA Silai School Didis Are Stitching Freedom And Transforming Rural India
Written by Team NDTV | Thursday December 11, 2025
USHA Silai School is empowering women across India by turning sewing skills into leadership and income. Women like Lalita, Yashira, and Pushpakala have become mentors, reviving traditions and building stronger communities. Their stories show how one skill can weave a brighter future.
Threads Of Legacy: Lakhi Debnath's Stitches Inspire Daughter's Fashion Dreams
Written by Team NDTV | Wednesday December 10, 2025
From homemaker to celebrated teacher, Lakhi Debnath transformed her life via Usha Silai School, funding her daughters' education and buying land through tailoring
From Despair To Dreams: How Kanta Devi Stitched A Brighter Future For Her Family
Written by Team NDTV | Tuesday December 09, 2025
In Takkar Birpur village, Jammu and Kashmir, Kanta Devi escaped domestic violence and poverty through the Usha Silai School's tailoring training. Earning ₹10,00020,000 monthly, she now teaches women in border areas while inspiring her daughter Tanya to dream of a bourtique
Threads Of Change: Mothers And Daughters Rise Together Through USHA Silai Schools
Written by Team NDTV | Thursday December 11, 2025
The USHA Silai School Program empowers women across India by teaching sewing skills, enabling them to earn an income, achieve financial independence, and build better futures for themselves and their families.
Empowering Women: From Trainees To Trainers In USHA Silai School
Team NDTV | Saturday March 22, 2025
The USHA Silai School Program empowers women across India with sewing skills, transforming them into trainers and fostering community growth and independence

In Pics

Stitches Of Healing: How Usha Silai School Turns Trauma Into Triumph Across India's Hills

In Nagaland's misty hills, Assam's remote forests, and Telangana's villages, women like Sukla Dey, Rabina Rabha, and Chukka Madhavi transform abuse, widowhood, and poverty into purpose through Usha Silai School

From Silai School to Local Influencer: The Usha Didi Story

Meet the Silai School didis - women transforming their communities stitch by stitch. A look at how Usha Silai School empowers them to lead, mediate, and drive social change in their villages, inspiring others and reshaping women's roles in rural India

Usha Silai Schools: Sewing Dreams, Sharing Strength

When women rise, generations rise. This holds true for women from Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Tamil Nadu who turned their challenges into opportunities. Usha Silai Schools helped them turn survival into shared success, inspiring their daughters to dream bigger. Take a look!

Enhancing Capabilities For Better Opportunities

The 5th Meghalaya Aajivika Saras Fair 2024 celebrated women entrepreneurs and their incredible journey. A special highlight this year was the participation of women trained at USHA's - Meghalaya State Rural Livelihoods Society (MSRLS) Training cum Production Centers. From designing their own outfits to walking the ramp, many even brought their children along, turning the stage into a powerful statement of empowerment and self-expression.

Women Investing In Their Own Training Cum Production Centres

USHA's technical expertise and motivational guidance have amplified their existing spark. Women who once struggled are now not only successfully running Silai Schools but are taking the next giant leap: establishing their own Training Cum Production Centres.

The USHA Silai Schools' Influence On Family Dynamics

The USHA Silai School program has shattered stereotypes, transforming women from passive figures into active breadwinners in their families. By equipping them with essential sewing skills and entrepreneurial knowledge, the program empowers women to take control of their financial futures and gain independence.

Synergizing Competencies: Partnerships With Public Sector Undertakings

USHA Silai School, in partnership with Public Sector Undertakings like, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) & Rourkela Steel Plant empowers women through sewing & stitching training. It creates financial independence, strengthens communities, and fosters economic growth.

Empowering Women, Enabling Progress: The Rise Of Women-Led Entrepreneurship

As women continue to upskill, the world of entrepreneurship becomes more inclusive and diverse. Each new skill learned, every barrier broken, leads to stronger communities, and empowered women paving the way for future generations.

Transforming Lives Through Strategic Partnerships

USHA's strategic partnerships with companies like Tata Power, Star Cement, and Godavari Power & Ispat Ltd. foster shared values that empower women across India. Initiatives such as training centers in Mal and Chamata Pathar have directly impacted over 300 women, equipping them with skills for economic self-dependence. These collaborations not only uplift individuals but also transform communities, promoting entrepreneurship and a brighter future for women.

Strengthening Communities: The Impact of USHA Silai Schools

Sanjay and Shruti have empowered women at the USHA Silai School, enhancing their skills and confidence. Sana Aftab's fundraising campaign aids marginalized women in Bandra and Andheri. Collaborating with Pratham, they teach sewing skills for economic independence, aiming to help 10 women start sustainable businesses. Since 2021, Neeraj and Amita Kapoor's centers have trained 68 women, generating over ₹22 lakhs. Ismail Khatri's donation of 4,500 meters of fabric enables these women to create products for sale. Together, these efforts are transforming lives and strengthening communities.

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 9

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 8

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 7

MEET THE ENTREPRENEURS: SEASON 6

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 5

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 4

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 3

Meet The Entrepreneurs: Season 2

Adopt a Silai School

About The Initiative

Latest Stories

In Pics

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