Women Empowerment initiative – Providing Livelihood skills to the underprivileged women, at Milakpur Dhani & Kaladera, Chomu..

To achieve women empowerment in the true sense, women need to be equipped with 2 main things: basic education & financial self-sustainability. There are many underprivileged women who are not only illiterate, but also do not have any livelihood skills. Such women lack self-confidence and are usually the most prone to social exploitation and male dominance, with little or no say even in their immediate family matters. They are unaware of their rights and have no way out of the vicious situation they are stuck in.
To help these women come out of the brutal cycle of poverty & submissiveness, SETU organized a seven day long Livelihood training workshop for the underprivileged women at Milakpur Dhani & Kaladera, Rajasthan. To promote education among these women, SETU has already opened 2 literacy centers for them in the last 2 years where many women & girls are learning to read & write, along with learning more about their rights. And so the need of training them with livelihood skills was felt so as to equip them with both the means for women empowerment!
At first, the women were trained for basic thread work. Those who showed potential were then trained for kantha stitching. A no. of women (12-15) are now able to earn substantial regular income by doing the kantha work through opportunities provided by SETU. However, a no, of women didn’t have any affinity for needle work and needed some alternate skill set to be learned. These women had been housewives all through their lives and cooking had been one of their major chores. Therefore, it was decided to train them to make & market food products on commercial basis. SETU realized that these women can turn into entrepreneurs and can start their own small scale enterprise if they are helped with a little awareness and knowledge on packaging and marketing skills. Also, they need to prepare delicacies with professional flair. With this objective, SETU conducted the seven day long livelihood training workshop.

In the session, women were trained to make Indian snacks and savories like different varieties of Mathries, papad, namkeen & even some sweets that can be stored for a long period of time.

Expert Trainer Mr. Vijaybhan Meena was appointed for the workshop. The participants were trained in making eateries that can be made easily at home so that women can work comfortably from their homes and simultaneously can perform the household chores. Information was provided on careful packaging of the products thereafter making them ready to be sold in the market! Later in the workshop, artisans were made aware of where to sell the products in the market.