Eight years ago, USHA Silai School began with the aim of empowering rural women to become entrepreneurs and give sewing lessons in their respective communities. But over the years, the Silai School initiative has evolved and today it is not only limited to giving sewing lessons and a silai machine to women to open their own silai school, but focusses on uplifting both men and women through various means. To achieve their goal, USHA trained women of Meghalaya to make cloth bags.
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Meghalaya, a northeastern state, popularly known as the abode of clouds, is covered with dense forest. According to a report published by the Forest Survey of India, 70 per cent of the state is forested, however with the passage of time and our heavy dependency on plastic, the dense forest was losing its charm. To overcome the issue, in 2016, the state pollution control board imposed a ban on the use of plastic carry bags with a thickness of less than 50 microns.
Someone has rightly said, ‘When one door closes, another window opens'. The same applies to Meghalaya as when the state government banned the use of plastic bags, there was a need for an alternative. Use of compostable bags was not a feasible option because it requires prior license and permission which is a complicated process. In a bid to provide a sustainable alternative to single-use plastic bags and simultaneously a source of income to disadvantaged women, the Meghalaya State Rural Livelihoods Society partnered with USHA.
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As part of the partnership, USHA was given the job of giving sewing lessons to women and train them to stitch cloth and jute bags. For the same, two production centres were established in the West Garo Hills and Khasi Hills and 50 women from existing Self Help Groups (SHGs) across the state were selected and trained by USHA.
As part of the training, women were not only taught to stitch simple carry bags of different sizes and weight capacity, but also stylish and fashionable bags.
Firstly, the idea really was to ensure that women are also involved in different kinds of economic activity. We are a matrilineal society so we do ensure that women also get the kind of respect and opportunity that should be there in every society. Secondly, we felt that a program like Silai School will help us link to the different aspects of the environment with the fact that we will be able to produce sustainable products like cloth bags, says Conrad Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya.
Also, as the chief minister says, Meghalaya had a tradition of using cloth bags but plastic took over, the initiative in a way also aimed at bringing back the long lost tradition.
The initiative truly brought some change in the life of rural women, as a beneficiary shares the positive change brought in her life through a partnership between USHA and the state government and says,
We are a family of five and my husband lives in Guwahati for work. Whatever little I would earn through odd jobs or manage to save, I would use it for my children's school fee. But now after learning to stitch, I earn Rs. 15,000 which is sufficient for me to run my house.
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After giving a new meaning to the life of rural women of Meghalaya and providing an eco-friendly alternative to plastic bags, USHA reached Delhi and proved nothing is impossible.
The success story dates back to 2016 when Radhika Bharat Ram, Joint Secretary at Blind Relief Association in Delhi, approached USHA to conduct a vocational programme for visually impaired individuals.
USHA seized the opportunity and decided to come up with a curriculum that would work for the visually impaired. In three month's time, a program, tailor made for visually impaired, was launched and the trainees were provided USHA Janome machines which are compact yet packed with additional features and the rest is history. Sharing the first of a kind experience and how USHA executed it, Alok Shukla, Deputy General Manager, USHA Social Services, says,
We had never worked with the visually impaired individuals, so as an organization, it was an opportunity of learning and that is why the management decided to take this challenge. For the training, we changed some of the process in the machine functioning and some of the content also. The machines we trained them on, have additional features apart from the regular machines, so here you will be getting a feature of auto threading.
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Till date, 70 individuals have been trained and eight other learners are undergoing a training. The impact has been such that five of the trainees chose the programme as a skill they want to pursue for earning a living.
Our aim is to make sure that our trainees are self-sufficient, independent and employable. We have a great team at the blind relief association working towards ensuring that we introduce new programs, new vocational skills that would help them in becoming self-sufficient, says Radhika.
In both Meghalaya and Delhi, USHA worked with one sole aim that is to empower and uplift individuals and provide them with an improved source of livelihood.
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