As India moves towards making its cities more citizen friendly and sustainable, under its Smart Cities Mission, its rural counterparts are bracing for challenges of a different kind. In 2015, the government put forth the Smart Villages plan of converting a cluster of 300 villages into smart villages. But the issues faced in villages are very different from the urban stress points. Quality of life, education, healthcare, environment and employment are the most prominent challenges in the rural belt. The sleepy village of Mori has emerged as Andhra Pradesh's first smart village. Even as elsewhere people struggle with digital payments, Mori has a digital panchayat. Under the smart village initiative, focus has been on the underprivileged women to ensure that they are provided with resources to become self-reliant. It is here that partnerships with ventures like the Usha Silai School have helped. Today not just women but also some men have benefitted from the Silai school programme and instead of looking for livelihood outside the village or state, have created better job opportunities not just for themselves but also others in the community.
Kushalta Ke Kadam, an initiative by NDTV and USHA, aims at empowering women from rural India and encourages them to become entrepreneurs by taking up sewing and training others in their respective communities. Since 2011 Usha Silai Campaign has trained more than 3.95 lakh rural women within five years, with 17,000 Silai schools, spanning over 9272 Indian villages in India.
Kushalta Ke Kadam in Season 4 has returned with new goals and vision. The new season will witness the establishment of the new cluster in Kashmir, apart from the existing four clusters setup last year. The women from volatile Kashmir will work with well-known fashion designer Rohit Bal and get an unique opportunity to learn from him and make clothes for him. The work done by the Silai School women will be presented at Lakme Fashion week 2019.
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.
From struggling to make ends meet to creating clothes for a fashion label and walking the ramp at Lakme Fashion Week last year Sunita, Santosh, and Raziaben were among 32 women who lived a dream through silai label
2006 brought Nithari, Uttar Pradesh, into the headlines and presented the world with one of the most convoluted and inhuman stories of violence and murder ever
With agriculture being one of the primary sources of livelihood in West Bengal, here's how USHA Silai School created an alternative employment in the state
USHA Silai Sschool is helping women in Nagaland carve out their own destinies through stitching and sewing
Men from rural parts of Tamil Nadu have enrolled themselves for the USHA Silai School programme and are now earning a stable income meet their household expenses
Women from four different zones collaborated with prestigious fashion designers and launched their own clothing line Silai that was displayed at the Lakme Fashion Week 2018. Here's their rags to riches story
© Copyright NDTV Convergence Limited 2019. All rights reserved.
© Copyright NDTV Convergence Limited 2019. All rights reserved.