NEEV: Reaching Out, Reaching Within
“Earlier, my entire day was spent in cleaning the house, preparing food and taking care of other household chores of my family. After becoming a part of NEEV, I learned the art of stitching. Now, I can sew a variety of clothes for my family as well as for others. NEEV has made me financially independent and has instilled a sense of self confidence in me.” These were the words of Parul Purabiya, a resident of Palaj village, located in the neighborhood of IIT Gandhinagar in Gujarat, India.
Parul, along with her sister-in-law Bhavika, is one of the many women from surrounding villages of IITGN who joined Nurture and Empower Entrepreneurial Ventures (NEEV) with the aim to undertake basic training in the skills of their choice in order to gain employability and hence, empowerment and happiness.
Started in 2014, NEEV provides coaching and mentoring in various fields, with youth and women from the neighboring rural and semi-urban areas of the Institute being its focus beneficiaries. With the help of members of the IITGN community, various courses, activities, projects, workshops and awareness sessions are conducted by this outreach programme on a regular basis. The main objective is to bridge the knowledge and skills gap between different sections of the society. In the long run, this would be beneficial for sustainable livelihoods and employment of the underprivileged members of the community.
“Previously, I had to ask for money from my husband even for small household expenditures. But, now I am capable of earning some money by myself as well as looking after my children and family, at the same time. I have the opportunity of working from the comfort of my home. This became possible due to the stitching-skills course conducted by NEEV” added Bhavika Rathod, Parul’s sister-in-law.
NEEV’s two-month stitching-skills training course offers basic stitching education to participants. Designed especially for women, this eight week three-hour per day course which is conducted in the village itself, trains them to make a wide range of clothing for all age groups, such as frocks, petticoats, ladies blouse, salwar-kurta, cushion covers and cloth bags, in the long list of many others. The participants are taught the fine techniques of taking measurements, marking, cutting, sewing, altering and finishing. Some of them are also given stitching contracts, viz., sewing convocation stoles and eco-friendly cloth bags for the Institute, so as to help them acquire an in-depth practical understanding of their work. Women from nearby villages take part in this hands-on employment-oriented learning process.
According to Parul and Bhavika, “From not being able to stitch anything at all to stitching a diversity of clothes like baby attire, blouses, skirts, tops and kurtas — we have come a long way. Our neighbors have started to recognize us from our jobs. People come to us for getting their clothes stitched because they know that we are better at it! Now we too contribute to the income of our family of nine people, thanks to NEEV!” After having learnt the nuances of stitching, the sister-in-laws are earning more than Rs. 2000 a month.
Soumya Harish, the coordinator of NEEV, explained,
“One of our objectives is to encourage women empowerment, and we leverage IITGN’s resources as much as possible for achieving the same. The women in villages are still trying to identify their true potential. Courses like stitching are an effort in the direction of making them realize that apart from doing the household chores, they can also help smoothly run their families, in financial terms. We believe that learning such skills and earning money on their own boosts the confidence of women, and many confident and strong women together make a successful community.”
Talking about expanding the reach of this programme to more and more women, Parul and Bhavika said, “We advise women like us to join NEEV to explore and make new things and improve upon the existing ones in a much better way. We have the comfort of learning such skills at our villages, therefore, we can easily manage time between our training and daily household work. Now, we have a bank account and are saving some money every month so that we can buy a house in the future!”
IIT Gandhinagar and NEEV constantly strive to provide empowerment to grassroots communities, with the prime focus being women and youth, through workforce development by means of various entrepreneurship and skills training projects in the best ways possible.
“To empower a woman is to empower her children, her family and her community. The smartest investment we can make is in women. Women must have the freedom and possibility to decide who they are.” — Barbara Bush, first lady of the United States (1989–1993) and founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy
