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“Akka, I moved to this village after my marriage. My sister is still in Pondicherry and she has learnt sewing. I love the dresses that she wears. She stitches them herself. I wish I also could learn sewing and design my own clothes. I take the only bus that comes to our village, buy fabric from Cuddalore town and give it to a tailor from the town. I don’t think I can afford it more than twice a year.”, shared one of the mothers from temple street, Chithrapettai.
This is the story of over 75% of women from Chithrapettai, a fishing hamlet on the coast of rural Cuddalore. A recent survey we did at Chithrapettai and adjoining villages illustrates that the opportunity cost of skilling for women, is very high owing to structural and cultural odds stacked up against them.
Purpose
Seva Resource Center at Chithrapettai, aims to up-skill women from neighbouring villages in sewing who otherwise do not have access to skilling opportunities. We will do this by training them through a three month certificate course on basic tailoring. As Alumni of SRC, women will be encouraged to pursue livelihood options after completing the course. We will be arranging for transportation for women from adjacent villages, in order to ensure that mobility isn’t a barrier for them to up-skill themselves.
The Need
In order to set-up and run the sewing center, there are one-time infrastructure costs as well as recurring costs for December to March 2024.
One-time cost = INR 2,08,700
Recurring costs = INR 1,00,000
One-time cost:One-time cost = INR 2,08,700
Recurring costs = INR 1,00,000
Our work from 2017 - present
We’ve set up and run our skill development centre - Seva Resource centre inside our Kannarapettai ASSEFA School, since 2018. A teacher from the villages has supported learning and certification of over 120 women from 23 adjoiining villages. Women come with no prior experience, undergo a three month training program, complete viva-voce and examination. They undergo a series of sharing circles which builds their self awareness and exposure to opportunities. They end the course with a graduation function - post which they are a part of the alumni committee of the Seva Resource Center (SRC). At least 30% of alumni of SRC have choosen livelihood paths of working with Sura (Kanavu’s Social Enterprise), Self employment and working at garment factories.
Since last year, our skilling efforts extended to 150+ students from grades 6th to 10th of Sarva Seva School Kannarapettai. Students have learnt basics of tailoring, machine maintenance and handling. They’ve learnt to up-cycle old saris into bags and pouches for their own use.
We’ve observed that owing a sewing machines increases the odds of an alumnus continuing to stitch. Hence, since last year, we have been arranging access to sewing machines through micro-credit, in partnership with ASSEFA, Madurai. We’ve enabled livelihood access to 65 rural families till date.
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Kanavu means dreams in Tamil. We are a small team with big dreams. We dream of an India where one's circumstances don't dictate one's destiny. To realize this dream, we empower rural schools and communities, by bridging the skill and opportunity gap. Our thematic areas of work are education and community development. In Education wing of our work, we empower teachers & school leaders along with nurturing an ecosystem of partners across four affordable private schools (established by the ASSEFA foundation), with an aim to deliver holistic education sustainably. In our Community wing of work, we empower communities through skill development and livelihood opportunities for women (Sura).
