Vocational Training
Mission: Provide practical vocational training to rural women
Beneficiaries
More than 250 women have benefited from our programs since 2005
Purpose
IHDUA operates a vocational training program in tailoring that enables village women to learn a commercially valuable trade and increase their family income.
Forging Paths to Economic Engagement
Village women are fully invested in the success of their family farms, and they perform multiple roles on a daily basis out in the fields and in the homes. But beyond the boundary lines of their family plots, these women find few opportunities to apply their farming and animal husbandry skills in supplementary money-generating activities.
In order to provide an additional avenue for rural women to earn more money, we have established a vocational training program that provides instruction in tailoring, a craft that is in perennial demand in southern India.
Six Months of Instruction
Each year our instructors set up training workshops in two villages and area women are invited to take part. For six months, students develop the skills needed to succeed in a range of tailoring roles. From hand stitching and embroidering to operating modern sewing machines, these women become well-versed in all of the tools of the trade.
Graduates are qualified to seek employment in a factory setting, but many choose to work from home. Because students are able to study and then practice the trade in their own communities, they are enhancing their economic clout with a minimum of friction.
Impact
Since 2005 more than 250 women have completed IHDUA’s tailoring program.
