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A New Dawn For Women: The Impact Of USHA Silai School In Ariyalur
Team NDTV | Updated: February 25, 2025 16:41 IST
At USHA International Ltd., our mission is to empower women with the vocational skills they need to achieve financial independence and personal growth. Through our initiatives, we're witnessing a remarkable transformation in family dynamics—more equitable gender roles, reduced domestic violence, and enhanced community engagement are just a few outcomes. The USHA Silai School exemplifies this change.
In the heart of Ariyalur, a quiet revolution is underway, reshaping how women view themselves and how families relate to one another. The USHA Silai School is not just an educational program; it's a movement for social change.
A Successful Partnership Between USHA International And Rourkela Steel Plant
Meet Mrs. Menaka, a few years ago she was constrained by traditional gender roles and economic dependence. Today, thanks to the USHA Silai School, she is a beacon of change.
Menaka says,
"I run an USHA Silai School in Tirumalapadi. The job opportunities here are limited, primarily to agriculture and contractual labor. Yet, since the school opened on March 1, 2021, more than 120 women have learned essential skills like tailoring and stitching, turning their lives around.”
Menaka's commitment has resulted in her earning Rs. 20,000 a month from her Silai school. This financial independence has drastically shifted her family's dynamics.
Menaka Shares,
"My husband quit his job as an ambulance driver to assist me with the school."
Together, they took a loan to buy a tempo, which they've repaid from the school's revenues. Her husband, V Nagaraju, now plays an active role in their business.
He said,
"I support my wife like her left hand; she's the right hand in providing for our family.”
The USHA Silai School Program: Turning Dreams Into Reality
He helps with sewing machine maintenance and sourcing materials while co-managing their fruit juice shop.
Menaka's influence reaches her children too, who now see her as more than a homemaker; they recognize her as a decision-maker and key provider. Her success illustrates the program's impact—transforming women from passive figures into active contributors to their families.
Menaka also dreams of expanding her business. She shares,
"I want to take on larger projects to create job opportunities not just for myself but for my students as well.”
Her vision encompasses opening mini Training Cum Production Centres to support women throughout her community.
The USHA Silai School is about much more than learning to sew—it's about uplifting lives and catalyzing community change. Each woman empowered creates a ripple effect that strengthens not only families but entire neighborhoods.
Stitching A Brighter Future: Enabling Women In Odisha Through The USHA Silai School
In Ariyalur, women like Menaka are challenging norms and building a brighter future. The USHA Silai School is teaching women how to dream, rise, and forge new paths. By empowering them, we lift entire communities, proving that when you empower a woman, you enrich the world.
Published: February 25, 2025 14:37 IST
Team NDTV | Thursday March 06, 2025Women in rural India, like Geetaben and Leelaben, are transforming lives through Silai Schools and Training Cum Production Centres, fostering empowerment, skill development, and community resilience
- Team NDTV | Wednesday March 05, 2025
Anwara Begum's journey with USHA Silai School in Odisha showcases her transformation into a successful entrepreneur, empowering her community and inspiring young girls toward financial independence
- Team NDTV | Wednesday March 05, 2025
Prabha turned her life around through the USHA Silai School, empowering herself and other women with sewing skills and financial independence
- Team NDTV | Tuesday February 25, 2025
The USHA Silai School empowers women in Ariyalur, like Menaka, fostering financial independence and reshaping family dynamics through essential vocational training
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.
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.
Kushalta ke Kadam: Aiming for Independence Through Stitching
Rebari girls grow up learning traditional embroidery, which along with their new found sewing skills developed at Usha Silai Schools, is helping them earn a living.
Usha Silai School has empowered many rural women to support their family and send their children to school.
The Usha Silai School, established in a small nondescript village that goes by the name of Kottai, is helping empower people from varied communities.
The all-inclusive Usha Silai School Programme covers the entire nation from hamlets tucked between hills to villages cast by the sea.
Vegetables farmers from the Mizoram hills earn very little given the topography of the area. Usha Silai Schools have played an important part in this region by skilling women to financially contribute towards their households.
Usha Silai School learner Lucy has trained seven other women in her community, helping them to become financially independent.
Women like Kaviben from the nomadic Rebari community are finally laying down their roots as they begin to gain financial independence and thereby stability through Usha Silai School.
Usha Silai School, located in the Gujarat's Bhuj village, is enabling rural women to earn as much as Rs. 2,500-4,000 each month.
Usha Silai School, in association with a Gujarat based NGO called Kala Raksha, is trying to bring about a Silai revolution in Bhuj.
Besides training other women from their community, many Usha Silai School learners have become entrepreneurs in their own right.
With sewing becoming easily accessible and lucrative, the silai schools are also helping revive traditional motifs and designs.