Hyderabad, Aug 17 (KNN) Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) has launched the fifth phase of setting up of 300 Swavalamban Silai Schools across 10 districts of 6 States.

This was launched on Monday under its flagship initiative Mission Swavalamban, Atma Nirbhar Bharat and Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav in partnership with Usha International Limited, said the press release.

It will cover Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Goa, Puducherry, Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh with an objective to empower women making them independent while pursuing entrepreneurship culture (Udyam Se Azadi) and evolve as Homepreneurs.

The virtual launch of the program was flagged off from Puducherry by CMD, SIDBI, in the attendance of around 25 aspirational homepreneurs.

On the occasion Sivasubramanian Ramann, CMD, SIDBI said, “Till now,  2700 Swavalamban Silai Schools have been set-up covering 2618 villages, 198 blocks, 48 districts across 17 states (viz. UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh & North-East (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Tripura & Mizoram) of country.”

“It’s a matter of pride that they contributed to the national mission “Har Ghar Tiranga” by making 75000 flags which were distributed among 750 villages,” he added.

Taking the momentum ahead, SIDBI aims towards reaching 5,000 such schools across India and further stepping up them to take up bigger roles in readymade garment sector.

Under this program, aspiring women entrepreneurs are multi skilled in stitching, maintenance & repairing of sewing machine along with life skills & tenets of entrepreneurship. These are done by expert trainers of UIL.

Out of these 2700 Homepreneurs, around 40 per cent women fall under Other Backward Class category while around 39 per cent women belong to Scheduled Cast/Scheduled Tribe category. Overall, 60 per cent of these women who have set up Silai Schools hail from Below the Poverty Line category.

Cumulative income of these 2700 women has been recorded at Rs 12.47 crore during the period of 3 years through stitching job-work, learners’ fee & sewing machine repair. Around 40-45 per cent of these homepreneurs are earning around Rs 3000-3500/month on an average. 

The next level of their aspiration to assimilate embroidery & fashion designing is being worked upon jointly by SIDBI & Usha.  (KNN Bureau)