Vocational training in Basic Tailoring at AROHA’s Uddyam center , Nagpur city, was started in the month of September , 2015. The five women in this group – Swati Warthi, Mamta Shendre, Bhavana Paserkar, Bhavana Pendam & Karuna Mankar were selected by AROHA team for the training in Basic Tailoring. All were in the age group of 21 yrs. to 29 yrs.

Manorama Shakkya – 39 years old, wife of a daily wage earner, a mother of two children walked in the Uddyam center of AROHA to enquire about the vocational training programme in stitching in June 2011. She mentioned that her family has immigrated from Madya Pradesh to Nagpur in search of livelihood. Her formal qualification was M.A., but her confidence level was very low. Reason being – she had never stepped out of the house for earning in last twenty years.

She had learnt stitching before marriage so she thought that she could probably earn by getting stitching jobs at home. She bought a stitching machine and searched for orders in her neighborhood. She got few orders of stitching but she found that customers were not at all happy with the job done by her and refused to pay. As her children were growing, she felt that she cannot educate them with the current family income.

She then decided to take training but she had no money to pay the fees. Uddyam – a vocational training center supported by Larsen & Toubro Charitable Trust, came to her rescue. After the primary assessment of her economic condition and current skill level, she was admitted to the center. She completed the three months basic training programme. During the last month of the course she was transformed into a confident entrepreneur. She started stitching blouses of women from the neighborhood. Whenever she had some difficulty she asked the trainer, who solved her difficulties.

Manorama’s hands are full of work today. With the guidance at Uddyam and her tremendous efforts she has turned into an economically empowered women. She stitches blouses and salwar-kurtas of women in nearby areas. In order to get a constant flow of work, AROHA team has tried up with Mahavir Garments in Itwari market. Manorama picks up work of ready-made garments regularly. She is earning around Rs. 4000/- to Rs. 5000/- per month. Recently she was facilitated at the hands of Shri. Ajit Singh, Vice President, L & T charitable Trust for achieving excellence in skill level. She says ‘I am now able to contribute substantially in terms of money for my family, Thanks to all people who have supported me!