"SAKHI" - LALITA... A MASTER TRAINER IN STITCHING AND TAILORING

Lalita Choudhary, a 30 year old house wife belongs to a lower middle class family staying in Gudli, Udaipur. Few years back, she and her family had to struggle a lot as her husband’s job was not sufficient to feed the family of five. To fulfill the needs and to meet day to day expenses, Lalita started working as an Akaal Rahat Worker where she used to get a 3 kg of wheat after the whole day labour. But she was unhappy as after putting so much hard work, her children’s education and other requirements still remained unattended. 

Then she was approached by Hindustan Zinc through its women empowerment program in 2006 to join Self Help Group. She decided to give it a try and joined it that changed her life and this time it was a sustainable change. 

Under the program, she was first imparted training on stitching and tailoring at sewing centre in her Kalika Mata Self Help Group. There, Lalita and other 20 women were trained for around 6 months on skill development.

After training, Lalita started working from home where she used to stitch clothes free of cost in order to enhance her skills. After seeing her work inspiration, one NGO approached her and offered the job of a Master Trainer in a 10 day tailoring program far from village. In her life, for the first time she went away from home for work which was actually a daring decision for her and her family to take up. But Hindustan Zinc's Self Help Group Program had infused that courage into her to step forward and take up the given opportunity. It was a good learning experiencing for her and then and then with that confidence, in 2008, Lalita applied and got the job as a Master Trainer in Sewing Center program of Hindustan Zinc in Debari.

Things have changed for Lalita; she is now more confident, independent, socio-economically sound and most importantly has gained respect in her community and village.

She has completed 12 batches and has trained about 300 rural women. Lalita is now supporting her family financially while earning more than Rs 5000/- per month and with this money she is not only giving her children quality education but also has renovated her house that was pending for long time.

“I am training girls of my village in their summer vacations so that during the crisis they do not have to face problems as I did” – confirms confident Lalita.

Join "Sakhi" at www.facebook.com/vedantasakhi ....

HINDUSTAN ZINC "SAKHI" CAMPAIGN'S FIRST WORKSHOP

350 rural and tribal Women got together to participate in the First Workshop of Hindustan Zinc's women empowerment campaign "SAKHI".  The workshop was held at Vidhya Bhawan Auditorium in Udaipur today. These women from Hindustan Zinc self-help-groups traveled from the nearby villages of our business locations at Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara, Ajmer and Udaipur districts. 

The interactive workshop was taken by Prof. Anuja Sisodia, Indian Institute of Crafts & Design. From Hindustan Zinc, Mr. C.S.R. Mehta- Head Corporate Relations, Mr. Pavan Kaushik - Head Corporate Communications, Ms. Sushma Sharma - Incharge CSR, HZL also spoke about various aspects of socio-economic empowerment in rural and tribal women.

The workshop saw discussion and interactive sessions on changing scenario in the garments and home-furnishing market, development of handicraft industry, quality check in production, colour combination as per changing seasons, production as per current fashion trends and pricing of the products. 

Here, we present the glimpse of the Workshop-

FIRST WORKSHOP OF HINDUSTAN ZINC "SAKHI" CAMPAIGN, A GRAND SUCCESS

350 rural and tribal women come together for enhancing their socio-economic status
21st May 2014

350 rural and tribal Women got together to participate in the First Workshop of Hindustan Zinc's women empowerment campaign "SAKHI".  The workshop was held at Vidhya Bhawan Auditorium in Udaipur today. These women from Hindustan Zinc self-help-groups traveled from the nearby villages of our business locations at Rajsamand, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara, Ajmer and Udaipur districts. 

The workshop saw discussion and interactive sessions on changing scenario in the garments and home-furnishing market, development of handicraft industry, quality check in production, colour combination as per changing seasons, production as per current fashion trends and pricing of the products. These rural women also expressed their concerns about the availability of raw material, need for upgraded training programs, and addition of new markets for selling products.

The interactive workshop was taken by Prof. Anuja Sisodia, Indian Institute of Crafts & Design. From Hindustan Zinc, Mr. C.S.R. Mehta- Head Corporate Relations, Mr. Pavan Kaushik - Head Corporate Communications, Ms. Sushma Sharma - Incharge CSR, HZL also spoke about various aspects of socio-economic empowerment in rural and tribal women. 

Prof. Anuja Sisodia, who took the interactive workshop on designing, colour combination, quality checks, finishing and customer analysis, also spoke about matching production with market trends. She said, 'it is important to follow market trends to make the products more saleable and get the right price'.  Prof. Sisodia also showed samples to bring clarity on finishing and quality in products.

Hindustan Zinc has recently launched its campaign "SAKHI" which will help these rural and tribal women to become a collective force under a single umbrella have interactive discussions, share market knowledge and get more exposure, to ultimately become more social and economically empowered.

The today’s event, First Workshop of Hindustan Zinc "SAKHI" campaign was a grand success.

It is said, when you empower a rural and tribal women, you in-turn make a family socially and economically independent, thereby energizing a complete village and ultimately contributing towards progress of a nation. Rural women have always proved their mettle and strength in every sphere of life. May it be house-hold work, agriculture, handicrafts, tailoring, traditional crafts or liberal arts, rural women of India have always been in front and have even dominated the global fashion industry with their traditional art and skills.

The campaign "SAKHI" has been launched through blog (www.vedantasakhi.blogspot.in ) which uploads success stories of these women. Another platform for discussion, deliberations and knowledge sharing has been launched through blog (www.vedantasakhi.blogspot.in ) which uploads success stories of these women. Another platform for discussion, deliberations and knowledge sharing has been launched through facebook page (www.facebook.com/vedantasakhi). Besides 6,000 women and volunteers of Hindustan Zinc's self-help-groups, about 4,500 people from various fields have also joined the campaign.  

HINDUSTAN ZINC CAMPAIGN "SAKHI" TO BRING TOGETHER RURAL AND TRIBAL WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS

Recognizing the Success of Rural and Tribal Women

It is said, "When you empower a rural and tribal women, you in-turn make a family socially and economically independent, thereby energizing a complete village and ultimately contributing towards progress of a nation...".  It is not surprising to note that India has about 40 crore rural women and literacy rate is just about 69% in rural areas. It is also true that rural India has taken a giant leap towards literacy and has been progressing credibly faster, though about 9 crore India girls still remain illiterate.

Rural women have always proved their mettle and strength in every sphere of life. May it be house-hold work, agriculture, handicrafts, tailoring, traditional crafts or liberal arts, rural women of India have always been in front and have even dominated the global fashion industry with their traditional art and skills.

Hindustan Zinc, a Sesa Sterlite Limited company (Vedanta Group) realized this much earlier and with stupendous CSR and Communication teams at every location, the company has been able to bring together more than 6,000 rural & tribal women and weaved them into about 475 groups, popularly known as self-help-groups (SHG). Each group has been recognized for its success and linked with banks and markets for optimum returns of the products they make.

The formation of SHGs and bringing together over 6,000 rural and tribal women have given Hindustan Zinc a unique opportunity and edge to further up-scale and strengthen the program and build a platform to motivate millions of other rural and tribal women across the country. 

This is with this thought, Hindustan Zinc launched its social media campaign "Sakhi". Campaign "Sakhi" will energize, motivate and bring in front the outstanding work done by these tribal and rural women.  Campaign "Sakhi" will also share important government policies and decisions and key statistics relating to Indian rural and tribal women. 

The campaign has been launched through blog (www.vedantasakhi.blogspot.in ) which would upload success stories of these women. Another platform for discussion, deliberations and knowledge is facebook page (www.facebook.com/vedantasakhi). About 3,000 people have already aligned with the campaign and the blog is also touching over 100,000 page views.

The ultimate objective is to strengthen social and economic empowerment in these rural and tribal women so that they not only empower their families but also the nation.

"SAKHI" will be a symbol of friendship, commitments, teamwork, associations and progress with dignity and self-respect.

All are requested to LIKE the page www.facebook.com/vedantasakhi and visit the blog www.vedantasakhi.blogspot.in

VEDANTA SAKHI : JAI HIND SELF HELP GROUP

Village Bichaddi, District Udaipur, Rajasthan

Specialization : Embroidery, Stitching, Tailoring, Pittan-work, Button making

Bichaddi is a small village in Udaipur District, near Debari plant of Hindustan Zinc. It was our day to visit the "Vedanta Sakhi : Jai Hind SHG" where we were to meet rural women. As I call them, they are all rural entrepreneurs. On our arrival, we met Shehnaz Begum, the leader of "Vedanta Sakhi Jai Hind SHG". We could see that women of different temperaments and art-forms had formed their group.

We saw about 20 rural women engrossed in their work. Some were working on electric sewing machines and some were doing hand-work. We could see a number of products made by them had occupied the walls. From bags to ladies garments to minute work of thread, they were doing everything. Where Rehana was good in making bags, Nazma was good in making buttons, Kiran can make ladies garments and Ishika is good in doing hand embroidery. Amrin, Meera, Santosh, Anam, Karishma, Kusum, you name them and they were quite busy in their work had a little time to talk to us, as they had to complete a big order of Fab India and for the local market.

Shehnaz told us that these women come to the centre for about 4 hours every day and have been given various training by Hindustan Zinc in embroidery, stitching, tailoring, pittan-work, button making, etc.

Initially, the problem was learning, but once trained, they can produce best of products today. 

Each women in this group is earning about Rs. 2500-3000 every month and our group has also been linked with State Bank of Bikaner and Jaipur. All women have attained competency to deposit money in Bank and do their daily transactions. 

Sharp brains, hard work and spark on their faces, these rural women are determined to strengthen their socio-economic status.

We saw many young women of not more than 20 years of age and we also saw women in late 40s working together. Shehnaz informed me that the age difference in these women have only added to quality of products due to inherent competition. You get sharp brains and speed in young women and the matured women help in understanding the craft better.

MEETING KAISI BAI AT GUDWA (VILLAGE KARGET), UDAIPUR

12 km away from main highway on muddy tracks

It was the morning of 15th April and we decided to visit Kaisi Bai, one of the beneficiaries of Goatery Project.  About 11 km on the main highway towards Debari, Udaipur, from the busy city and then turning right into the villages.. muddy roads, dry trees, stray dogs, agriculture land that has been used and generally used only once in a year, that also during rains.. 

We were discussing about how deep the tribal population is situated and how much time will it take to reach them. The dusty roads never allowed us to drive at normal speed; we were just moving at a slow speed.

Moving about 12 km in the deep rural areas, we were informed that Gudwa, under village Karget is about to come and we would need to park our vehicle and walk up to the house of Kaisi Bai. Our CSR in-charge (Debari) advised us to park the vehicle and we could walk now.. Kaisi Bai's house was visible now.

Kaisi was sitting with her goats and giving them water. She was surprised by our visit, maybe she was not expecting. Her husband, son and his wife were also present. His son's wife has 2 daughters; both of them go to "Khushi" centre nearby in Gudwa itself.

Kaisi Bai arranged for our sitting and asked her daughter-in-law to spread a bed-sheet on the floor. We were comfortable.

A muddy house has a gate charted out of dry bushes. There is a water storage place and a small covered place, again prepared from the dry bushes, for the goats. The house has electricity.

Kaisi Bai informed us that she is part of self-help-group organized by Vedanta-Hindustan Zinc. From there she came to know about the Goatery Project of the company. She informed that under the Project Goatery, Hindustan Zinc has provided her a unit of 6 Sirohi Breed goats, which include one male and 5 female. As per the project, she was required to pay about Rs. 15,000/- which is 50% of the cost of buying 6 Sirohi Breed goats and the rest 50% was born by Hindustan Zinc. The total cost of the project is Rs. 29,000/- for 6 Sirohi Goats. 

The Sirohi Breed goats are special for their fast growth and cases have been seen where more than 70% goats have delivered twins. Each goat gives about a litre of milk which is used for children or selling. These goats have bright spots on their skin and this is how they are identified as of Sirohi Breed.

The Goatery Project has become backbone of giving a dignified life for Kaisi Bai. Her economic condition has become stable now. We could see a television in her house. The people were neatly dressed and her house was hygienic. Kaisi Bai also informed that her family has been able to earn about Rs. 30,000/- in just about 2 years by selling goats. 

The Project is being executed in consultation with Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (RUVAS)- for technical support, and Hanuman Van Vikas Samiti (HVVS) for their expertise in selection of goats.

Hindustan Zinc has benefited 30 tribal families and shall be covering about 15 families more under their Goatery Project in Debari.

The success of Project Goatery has given stability to the economic condition of the tribal like Kaisi Bai who has extremely limited means for their livelihood.