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Empowering Change: Anwara Begums Journey With USHA Silai School
Team NDTV | Updated: March 05, 2025 14:05 IST
Empowering women can transform families and communities. In Odisha, the USHA Silai School program is creating ripples of change, and one inspiring story is that of Anwara Begum from Goladia village in Chandabali.
At 37, Anwara's life changed when she received a free sewing machine and underwent a transformative 9-day training session at USHA Silai School in December 2020. Within a month, she earned her course completion certificate and began a new chapter in her life.
Anwara said,
“I am the first woman in my family to work. I used to ask others for money, but now I earn my own.”
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Coming from a financially struggling background, she relied on her husband's small business. However, after joining the Swavalamban Silai School Program, Anwara unlocked her potential as an entrepreneur.
Facing challenges such as a lack of initial customers, Anwara creatively attracted clients by displaying a USHA board outside her home.
She shares,
“People recognized it as a sewing school and started bringing their children for training.”
Today, Anwara is not only a successful businesswoman but also trains young girls in sewing, empowering them to become financially independent.
Bijayananda Dash, Program Coordinator at USHA Social Services, said,
“Anwara has become a role model, helping other women generate income. Her commitment and training have increased not just her income, but that of her whole village.”
Anwara frequently travels across Odisha for training and has enhanced her skills by adopting electric sewing machines, which has significantly improved her productivity.
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Anwara further said,
“Working is fun, and I always look for ways to be more efficient. I never imagined I would progress this far. USHA has changed my life.”
With a monthly income surpassing ₹10,000, Anwara has built a two-bedroom home and contributed to her husband's hardware shop. She has also gained financial literacy, enabling her to manage loans effectively.
By focusing on her children's future and inspiring other young girls, she is a true agent of change in her community.
Published: March 05, 2025 11:55 IST
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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.