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Threads Of Legacy: Lakhi Debnath's Stitches Inspire Daughter's Fashion Dreams
Written by Team NDTV | Updated: December 10, 2025 19:47 IST
New Delhi: In the quiet rhythm of everyday life, a single sewing machine can hum the tune of transformation. For Lakhi Debnath, it became the heartbeat of hope, empowering a homemaker's routine. Through the Usha Silai School, Lakhi discovered not just tailoring skills, but a path to independence that rippled through her family. Life before was a delicate balance of dependence and deferred dreams. Lakhi managed the home while her husband earned modestly from his shop, leaving little room for extras like better schools or ambitions.
Her daughter Priya remembers those days vividly,
When I came home from school, Mummy couldn't give me much time. I'd be with Dadi or Papa. Sometimes I cried, but she was in class and couldn't come right away.
Priya even felt a pang when Lakhi left for training, wishing her mother would “leave it all and just play with me.” Yet Lakhi pressed on, enrolling in the Usha Silai School around 2020. The short training unlocked a world of possibility. She started stitching for neighbors, teaching village women, and building a steady income. "Our situation was bad before,” Lakhi reflected. She further said,
I worked at home; now everything's better. I educated my older daughter and sent her to Guwahati for fashion design—all from this income. We even bought land.
Her home buzzed with activity, fostering community and recognition. She said,
People from Golaghat and Kaziranga know me now. Without Usha Silai, I'd still be at home.
Priya, once a reluctant observer, found herself drawn in. “I wasn't interested at first, but I learned while playing on the machine with Mummy's students,” she shared. The lockdown sealed her inspiration:
The world shut down, but Mummy kept teaching safely. I thought, there's something special here. Now I want to be like her.
Today, Priya pursues fashion design in Delhi, proudly telling her faculty, “I learned it all from Mummy.” When designs stump her, she calls home: “Mummy explains, and it feels great learning new things from her.” This bond weaves deeper than fabric. Lakhi glows when Priya said,
I want to be like you - a teacher everyone knows. I never knew Mummy would become so famous or such a great teacher.
Her younger daughter chimed in, “Everyone calls you Ma'am, like my school teachers!” Lakhi's journey shows the Usha Silai School's quiet power: sparking intergenerational pride, creativity, and resilience. From Bokakhat's simple streets, her stitches have funded dreams, bought land, and inspired daughters to soar—proving one skill can redesign futures, family by family.
Published: December 09, 2025 12:20 IST
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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
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.