With her expertise and deep involvement in empowering rural women and fostering sustainable micro-enterprises, Mary Rupa Tete, Vice President – Usha Social Services shares valuable insights and inspiring stories of transformation.
Welcome to an exclusive CSR Interview with Mary Rupa Tete, Vice President of Usha Social Services at Usha International, as she shares insights into the transformative Usha Silai School initiative, empowering rural women and fostering sustainable micro-enterprises across India.
Q. What is the larger aim behind Usha’s Silai School initiative? When was it conceptualized?
The overarching goal of the Usha Silai School initiative is to empower rural women across India by skilling them and supporting them to become self-sustaining micro-entrepreneurs. As part of the initiative, Usha offers a 9-day residential intensive training programme to women enrolled in its Silai School program in rural regions pan India.
The initiative was started in the year 2011 with the aim to skill up women in remote areas of the country and foster sustainable community development to build a more inclusive and prosperous society. In remote areas, women often bear the brunt of a lack of jobs and resources, and struggle to support their families. Once trained under the Usha Silai School initiative, these women gain skills and confidence to start running micro-enterprises of their own, becoming self-dependent and ensuring sustainable livelihoods for their families.
Q. How many women and lives has the initiative impacted so far? How do rural women benefit from the programme?
With over 32,000 Silai Schools spread across India’s 28 states and 8 union territories, the Usha Silai School initiative has impacted the lives of over 11 lakh women till date. In the last 12 years, Usha International’s Silai initiative has spread across rural communities throughout the nation via a strong network of over 87 local NGO partners, partnerships with organizations for government/private collaborations.
As part of the initiative, women who have been struggling with various socio-economic issues in their respective rural communities are selected with the assistance of NGO partners. The chosen women come from impoverished homes, may experience social exclusion due to their socioeconomic position, and may have physical disabilities, or are from disaster-affected areas.
The chosen women are given nine days of residential instruction in sewing methods, sewing machine repair and maintenance, life skills, etc. Usha International often provides them with support materials such as Usha Silai School signage, a sewing machine, service manual, a certificate, and a curriculum in the local language. The women get ongoing assistance from the NGO partner to establish their own Usha Silai Schools in their homes, which includes enlisting the help of the neighborhood and mobilizing students and local market connections. The Usha Silai School staff routinely observes and assists the women in raising their subsistence income via sewing, teaching sewing techniques, and sewing machine repair.
Q. Sewing is often considered as a long-lost hobby or activity. What according to you is sewing’s future in India?
India is a melting pot of cultures, arts and crafts, and has a significant history of sewing. The art of sewing has been practiced in India for centuries and continues to sustain in one way or the other. But with time and the advent of more convenient fast fashion, the art form lost its sheen. However, the scenario is changing, as people are increasingly becoming environmentally conscious preferring locally produced, hand-made clothes vis-à-vis mass produced ones. This trend has brought sewing back in demand with artisans and local weavers creating sustainable clothing.
Q. What are some of the key challenges faced by you while imparting education and aiding the progress of women-led micro-enterprises in India?
The progress of women-led micro-enterprises in India is often hindered by several challenges such as limited access to resources, lack of skills, and other logistics. Additionally, to run any business in India there is a need for business knowledge, a strong industry network, and financial assistance. Women belonging to rural areas often lack these and are unable to fulfill their dreams of becoming an entrepreneur.
Q. Could you shed light on the state of female entrepreneurs, across India’s rural and rural-urban regions?
Women entrepreneurs have enormous potential and therefore can play a significant role in an emerging economy like India. While the government is providing the much-needed boost to small-scale businesses through favorable policies and schemes, rural women in particular face several challenges related to financial assistance, skills, and patriarchy issues. To ensure that the spirit of entrepreneurship reaches the grassroots level, industries across sectors need to collaborate with the government and other bodies and empower rural women by breaking down the barriers to access whatever they need to start their own enterprises. Usha, through its strong collaboration with NGOs, and government organizations, is enabling entrepreneurship for rural women and providing them with the resources and skill sets required to establish businesses.
Q. What is the nature of Usha’s partnership with the East India Fashion Week? How many Silai School women are participating in the same?
The East India Fashion Week is amongst one of the best platforms to promote regional participation and the perfect forum to enable our women to showcase the wonders they can create with a little bit of mentorship. It also highlights the amazing talent pool of female entrepreneurs in the country’s far east, praising their achievements and inspiring them to pursue new projects.
Between 2017 and 2019, Usha has collaborated with well-known designers and the Usha Silai Women have been part of two Lakme Fashion Weeks and showcased their designs on the ramp. The intent always is to provide rural women a platform where they can demonstrate their abilities and further hone their skills, and confidence, as they work with some of the best-known names in the fashion world who are also passionate about empowering women and environmental sustainability. Therefore, their creations, along with the Usha Silai School women, featured local weaves and materials, traditional craft techniques, and inculcating age-old designs with a modern twist.
Hailing from rural areas, the 10 Usha Silai School women selected for the East India Fashion Week included Durga Rani (Pakyong, Sikkim), Lalita Rai (Agrigoan Village), Dharitri Kalita (Bankakata, Assam), Rinki Das (Silchar, Assam), Salam Thoibi Devi (Moirang Village, Manipur), Elangbam Surbala (Manipur), Pinkumoni Devi (Assam), Pallabi Bora (Assam), Ramngaihpuii (Mizoram) and Lalthianghlimi (Mizoram). They worked with five designers – Nandini Baruah and Meghna Rai Medhi from Assam, Tsering Dolma from Sikkim, Arbin Tonjam from Manipur, and Escape Engmoia from Mizoram, to further hone their skills, and gained more confidence while working amidst the fashion fraternity, as they also understood the nuances of how they can weave in the sustainable traditional crafts and weaves to infuse their collection with a unique take on the sensitivities of the region.
Q. From homemakers to fashion designers – could you highlight the stories of accomplished Silai School women from the North-East region
Rural women in India’s Northeast have benefited greatly from the Usha Silai School programme, which has helped many of them to start their own businesses. From housewives to single mothers, the programme has helped several women find and grow their careers to become financially independent.
Here are the success stories of some of our Usha Silai School women from the northeast in their own words:
“In the greater Chhaygaon area of Kamrup district, I am popularly known as USHA Baidew due to my life’s transformation with the help of Usha and admiration received from people.” (*Baidew, an Assamese word- that means ‘Didi’ in Hindi and ‘Elder Sister’ in English)”- Dharitri Kalita, Assam.
“I tell other girls and women I meet either individually or in groups to look at how the sewing business has changed my life. Considering that earlier only men were known as the sole breadwinners for their families, others are truly inspired seeing it has completely changed in my case” – Elangbam Surbala Devi, Manipur.
“Don’t give up and keep working hard until you (to other women struggling in their lives) reach your goal” – Lalthianghlimi, Mizoram.
Q. How has Usha helped these women become successful entrepreneurs?
Other than providing the resources and required skill sets in sewing and stitching, Usha trains these women in life skills and enterprise management skills such as marketing and finance too. The programme also offers continuous support through networking opportunities and mentorship, linking women with potential buyers in the market. All these factors have enabled women to establish sustainable micro-enterprises and train other women from their regions to be confident, self-dependent and earn livelihoods for their families.
Q. What’s next for Usha and its partner NGOs?
Events like this validate that we are on the right track and make us even more determined to grow and do more. We will continue to work towards rural women entrepreneurship and women empowerment along with our partners. In the coming years, we aim to expand the network of our NGO partners and reach more and more women across India. We also aim to further strengthen our partnerships with the industry bodies/governments/institutions and NGOs to create long-term opportunities for our women.
Q. Any memorable anecdotes that you’d like to share from your experience with Usha Silai School so far?
Usha Silai School has been instrumental in changing the lives of rural women across India and serves as an inspiration for many others, who want to live a life of dignity, be self-dependent by earning sustainable livelihoods.
A recent example from the recent East India Fashion Week – among the Usha Silai school women entrepreneurs was a rape survivor who was also HIV positive, so you can imagine how difficult life must really have been. However, her spirit and the zeal to do more and excel stayed strong. She expressed that having worked with the designers was very fulfilling and is very sure she does not want to stop at just this. She wants to learn more about fashion design and launch her own collection.
Another instance is of a woman in Dhule, Maharashtra. A victim of domestic violence, she was neither supported by her in-laws nor her parents. Left to fend for herself, she was selected to be trained under the Usha Silai School and is today financially independent, supports her children’s education, and is also fighting a legal battle against her husband.
In order to rehabilitate the manual scavengers, an NGO approached Usha, and we have opened more than 40 Usha Silai Schools as a means of providing alternate sustainable livelihood for them.
