Tailoring Skills for 50 Girls in Kolkata, India

Challenge

Girls who have grown up beside the railway tracks or open sewers in central Kolkata are likely to leave education and to marry early. Drudgery, poverty, child-bearing, often abuse and abandonment follow. Many women become main breadwinners supporting broken addicted husbands as well as the children. Without education or skills to earn a good wage, they turn to domestic service, involving long hours, extremely exploitative pay and the need to leave the children alone for long stretches.

Solution

A six-month tailoring course provides a girl with the skills to earn a living from stitching. The training centre will find well paid work for the girls who wish to be employed outside the home and Tiljala SHED, with your help, will provide the sewing machine and other equipment each girl needs to be able to work from home, should that be necessary. We will cover the travel costs for the girls too, as this is a serious barrier to enrolment.

Long-Term Impact

A good income gives a woman the economic power to make decisions about her life. She is more likely to delay marriage and also to have more power at home as well as respect in the community. We have found again and again that working women suffer less domestic abuse, are more likely to keep their children in education and to help move their families away from the encampments and into proper housing. An economically active woman has a generational impact on her children and beyond.

Resources

• http:/​/​www.tished.org