The Jagruti program of Light of Life Trust is focused on providing a sustainable livelihood to 260 women from Murbad Village in Thane district of Maharashtra. The program is equipping underprivileged women and girls to develop creative skills like Sewing, Beauty Training which can be used to generate money from sale of the products created and services rendered. Once earning, they can supplement the house hold income and become providers for the family.
Rural women depend on agriculture for survival. While land is a crucial economic asset very few own land and hence are reduced to perform household routine chores and cheap labour intensive activities. Without money and a livelihood they have no voice. Traditionally too women have been denied basic education and have not been in the forefront of decision making in the family or in society.
The program has been developed keeping in mind the needs of women, their aspirations and the cultural and family context that they come from. Firstly they are exposed to knowledge and practice of Beautician training, Sewing and Tailoring, Pant and Shirt making fundamentals through customized Vocational courses. Practical sessions help them to hone their skills more effectively. An Entrepreneurship Program helps them to look at their craft with a small scale business-like approach.
We seek to make Skill Training easily accessible and usable for these underprivileged women in Murbad. Our experience in the interventions conducted in other centres shows us that when women learn they make progress in their thinking and they take along not only their families but the community too. Their learning and aspirations, once skilled, inspire other women to think about these opportunities that can change their day to day existence.
This project has provided additional documentation in a XLSX file (projdoc.xlsx).