By: Varda Sharma
Sheela Ramprakash (29) was born in an underprivileged family. Her father, who worked as a construction worker, was diagnosed with last stage of Tuberculosis when Sheela was in ninth standard. Faced with financial crisis and five people to support, Sheela started working immediately after completing her Xth standard
with an artisan group supported by Srujna Charitable Trust, doing tailoring work. She took care of her father’s medication, but could not save him and he died in 2013. She also supported education of her younger two siblings who are now working in private firm. After working for 12 years Sheela now trains many women like her and is helping them become financially independent.
Fatima Aslam Ansari’s (35) parents died when she was just 6. She was shifted to Mumbai to live with her relatives. Although a bright child, she was dropped out from her primary schooling due to poor financial condition. After she turned 18, she got married, where again, she faced financial crunch as her husband’s income was meagre. That’s when she made up her mind to work and earn. She started working at a partner organisation of Srujna, where she not only started earning, but started bonding with other women like her. She realized the commonness in life and shared her trial and tribulations with them.
Both Sheela and Fatima are part of the various vocational training programmes undertaken by ‘Srujna’, a not for profit based in Mumbai, which aims to bring livelihood to the doorstep of women who cannot go out to work.
Humble beginning
Jyotika Bhatia, a vocational education trainer, was disturbed to see that most of the girls rescued from trafficking had no idea what they will be doing after they get released from the shelter home. Jyotika was interning there and thus had first-hand knowledge of their plight. She discussed this with her college colleague, Vaishali Shah, a textile designer and together they founded ‘Srujna’ (meaning ‘creating new energy’ in Sanskrit) in 2011.
As per the World Economic Forum, the India Gender Gap Review, 2013, India ranks 124th out of 136 countries when it comes to women’s economic participation. The ratio of women employment-to-population ratio was 47.1 per cent in 2013 (UN Women, Economic Empowerment, facts and figures). “Srujna aims to make a small attempt in changing this,” says Vaishali.
“We conduct skill training in crafts like tailoring, jewellery making, paper bag making etc.; business training in costing, sourcing, production, quality management etc. and capacity building for livelihood. We also do market connects to link up the trained women artisans with the market through exhibitions, job orders, shop tie-ups and online retail,” says Jyotika.
Since inception ‘Srujna’ has reached out to over 6000 underprivileged and dreams of impacting 1,00,000 women by 2022. “Our members are earning a steady income, speaking up for their rights, have started saving, investing and building assets,” says Vaishali.
“We dream of being able to work for all the women across India and want to expand our activities in the next financial year to be able to include more women into the fold,” says Jyotika adding that the desire is to “create a world where women have the resources and abilities to lead a meaningful life.”
(In the pic: Founders: Left: Vaishali and Right: Jyotika)
Founders: Jyotika Bhatia, Vaishali Shah
Founded: 2011
Location: Mumbai
Website: www.srujna.org
