Success Stories of Skilled Women from Empower Pragati

Empower Pragati was founded in order to provide vocational training to those who wish to find more gainful employment. It partners with NSDC to train unemployed in several sectors and one such training program that made a significant impact on several lives is Saksham. Saksham provides training and livelihood opportunities to disadvantaged youth residing in BPL rural areas. Many rural youth migrate to urban areas to see new positions. Unfortunately, they do not have access to information, knowhow or training to appropriately operate in urban life and pursue these employment opportunities. Saksham prepares rural youth with vocational and life skill sets and will identify and secure urban-based employment positions. Read on to find inspiring stories about women who transcended their limitations and underwent training at Saksham training center to carve a niche for themselves and make their own destiny. Saleha Kaushar, Au Bon Pain Saleha lives at Chandan Haula village in Delhi with her parents and two siblings (one brother and one younger sister). Her father used to work as a tailor but due to ill health he was unable to continue working. It had been three years since he was unemployed and the financial conditions of the family were fast deteriorating. Her mother had earlier worked at a Gender Resource Centre (GRC) and now takes home tuitions. Her income is irregular and so this creates further financial troubles for the family. To add to this, Saleha was brought up in an environment where her parents were constantly fighting with each other. This created a lot of tension in the household and created an extremely unhealthy environment for Saleha and her siblings to grow up in. When Saleha had completed her Class 12 in 2014 her parents were not willing for her to continue with her studies. They were also not keen on her taking up a job and so Saleha’s future prospects looked bleak. It is somewhere around this time that she found out about Empower Pragati’s placement linked vocational training programme ‘Saksham’ through one of her friends. The idea of a free training programme which also guarantees placement opportunities seemed quite appealing to Saleha and so she visited the centre at Mehrauli to make some inquiries with her mother. There they met the trainers at the centre who explained what the course had to offer in more detail to the mother-daughter duo. Although their doubts were cleared, her mother did not agree to send her for the training programme. Another round counseling was required for the parent to finally agree to send her. This, says Saleha, was a saving grace to her life. After completing the course she was successful in getting a job at Au Bon Pain. Today, she is the highest earning member of her family and is extremely proud of this. She is working successfully at the café where she has experience working in all the stations and can masterfully handle sandwich, salad and beverages stations. She is also greatly appreciated by her manager for her work at store. Radha Giri, Chaayos Radha Giri lives in a family of 8 at Mehrauli in Delhi. She has an elder brother and sister and three younger sisters. Her family is from Bihar and they had migrated to Delhi in search of a better life. Their financial conditions in Bihar were poor and they had come to Delhi to earn a better living. Upon coming to Delhi, Radha tried to get a job at various places but was not successful in cracking any interview. She was 20 years old when she came to Empower Pragati’s ‘Saksham’ centre to enquire about the training. She had heard about the centre and wanted to know more about skill development. Upon learning that completing this course would also help her in getting a job, Radha enrolled into the programme. She completed the training programme successfully and managed to get a job in the Hospitality sector at Chaayos. She joined as a team member and began earning a salary of Rs. 10,000. She is now bearing all her household expenses which include house rent and food. She is extremely satisfied with her job. Shivani Yadav, Sbarro Shivani Yadav lives in Mehrauli in a family of six members. It had been quite some time since she had been trying her hand at interviews but was unsuccessful each time. She desperately needed a job because the financial conditions of her family were not good and these repeated failures had begun to demoralize her. Her father is an auto driver and does not earn enough to manage the household expenses. She felt completely helpless when it came to helping him and was always looking out for work opportunities. She got to know about Empower Pragati’s ‘Saksham’ training centre in Mehrauli through the centre’s mobilization activities and decided to enroll. When she had joined, she was very low on self esteem and her soft skills were extremely weak. So many rejections had also taken a toll on her self-worth and this was clearly evident. She was encouraged to join the training programme during the pre-training counseling sessions and made to believe that she had immense capabilities. She completed the two month long training programme successfully and one of the first candidates to obtain a job during the placement drive. She joined Sbarro and continues to work there today. She is now contributing to the monthly expenses of her family and has also received many accolades from her employers. She has already been awarded Sbarro’s Employee of the Month twice in the one year that she has spent there. Yogita, Completed Training Yogita is 19 years old and lives in Delhi with her parents and two brothers. Her father works in a factory and her mother is a domestic help. Her father does not know that her mother works because if he finds out that she is earning he will take away her money and spend it on alcohol. He is a rampant alcoholic who does not contribute to the household’s earnings or savings. His wife fears that he may begin to take away her hard earned money too and this is why she keeps her work a secret from him. To add to the family’s misery, her elder brother too works in a shop but does not contribute toward the household expenses. Therefore, for a very long time it was Yogita’s mother who had been the primary source of sustenance for her family. Yogita had studied up to Class 12 and had wanted to study further but could not do so as she could not take any more money from her family. One day, Yogita heard an auto announcement informing the community about Empower Pragati’s ‘Saksham’ training programme and so came to the centre to enquire more about it. Upon learning more about the course, she wasted no time and enrolled immediately. She was a regular student and a dedicated one too. Her communication skills began to improve at a steady pace and soon her confidence began to boost itself up too. After completing her training, Yogita appeared in five interviews unsuccessfully and was soon beginning to get demoralized. Many of her classmates had already been selected and she was becoming increasingly disappointed with herself. However, she did not give up. She continued coming to the centre and kept asking the trainers for their feedback regarding her interview performances and worked harder for every next interview. Finally, she got a job through which she is now pursuing her higher education. She also helps her mother with the household expenses. She says, “I am really thankful to Saksham and the faculty for giving me so many chances in spite of my failures”. Mannu, Cafe Coffee day Mannu lives in Shayam Colony, Faridabad with her parents. She is the middle child, with an elder sister and younger brother. With a homemaker mother and father working as a welder, her family income is close to 10,000 per month. Unfortunately for her and her sister, her father had a strong preference for a male child and held a bias against girls. Due to this reason, he never encouraged his daughters to study beyond a certain point or pursue a career. Mannu found out about Empower Pragati’s ‘Saksham’ training programme from her friends and came to the centre right after clearing her 12th grade exams. An intrinsically shy girl, she lacked any clarity about what career path to follow and what goals to set for herself. After completing her course, she decided that she wanted to work in the hospitality sector and support her family financially. On completing her course she was placed at Café Coffe Day in September 2014, with a salary of Rs.8435. Mannu continued to pursue further education along with her job. Currently her salary has increased to around 10,000 per month, with which she has been able to purchase a cooler, mobile and other such things for her family. She is very happy with her job and her parents too are proud of how well she has managed to do for herself. Manisha Meena, Reliance Fresh Manisha originally belongs to Rajasthan but now lives at Pulpehladpur in Delhi with her uncle. She is the eldest among her siblings and has four younger sisters and one younger brother. Her father works as farmer in Rajasthan and her mother was a house wife. Her family’s annual income was about forty thousand to fifty thousand and with such a large household, it made survival difficult. Manisha had first come to Delhi in 2012 for her mother’s cancer treatments. While the treatment went on she had decided to look for a job so as to help in dealing with the daily expenses. She looked long and hard but found it extremely difficult to find a suitable job for herself in a new city. This is when she heard about Empower Pragati’s ‘Saksham’ training centre in Badarpur and decided to join. When she had first joined, she had no clue about what career path to follow. All that she had in mind was to get a job soon so that she could care for her mother. She was a hesitant girl and had poor communication skills. Since her mother tongue varied greatly with that of Delhi, she found it very difficult to communicate with her classmates and was unable to participate in the classroom activities. Added to this was the constant worry and pressure of taking care of her mother. She would attend classes and rush back to her mother’s side and yet never missed a single day of the two month long training programme. The trainer at Badarpur noticed a slow but steady change in Manisha over the course of the first few weeks itself. As she began mingling with her classmates, her confidence levels built up. She was a very hardworking girl and took it upon herself to learn the language and mannerisms of Delhi. After completing the course she gave her first interview at Strategic Manpower Solution Limited and was selected to work at the Reliance Fresh (Tara Apartments outlet) for a 4G process. She had joined at a CTC salary of Rupees 10,857 and worked there from September 2015 to June 2016. Unfortunately, her mother passed away during this time and Manisha was left devastated. She was hugely affected by this but also knew that being the eldest among her siblings she had to look after her family. She continued doing her job and also began looking for government jobs. She began filling up many forms and was finally successful in getting a job at an MCD dispensary. Today she earns Rupees 21,105 and takes good care of her family. Manisha is now married but still supports her maiden family. Her in-laws are extremely supportive and are proud of their daughter in-law. Puja Kumari, Reliance Trends Pooja belongs to a village in Samastipur where she lives with her parents and three siblings. Her father is a poor farmer and also the primary breadwinner in the family. For the most part of his life he has tilled the land to earn his daily bread and even then the family lives in abject poverty. Pooja, despite being a bright girl was unable to continue her studies after the 10th standard. She had to quit studies so as to begin helping her father in the fields as she felt desperate to contribute to the family earnings. This is when she found out about Empower Pragati’s vocational training centre in Samastipur through an advertisement. She found out the address for the centre and came for an enquiry. She was informed about the courses on offer and decided to join the Retail- Trainee Associate course. During her tenure at the centre her regularity and zeal towards the class was commendable. She attended an on job training (OJT) at Reliance Trends and did a splendid job there. Her brief stint was liked by the staff at reliance Trends so much that they offered her a job soon after the OJT. During the interview, she was very scared as she was worried about her communication skills but she did manage to clear it. She is working as a Sales Girl at Reliance Trends with a salary of Rs 8,500 per month. Baby Kumari, SBI Customer Service Point Baby belongs to a family of five and lives in a village called Harpurallouth, Jitwar, Samastipur. Her father late Maheshwar Choudhary, earned a modest livelihood through selling the juices from a date tree. She has completed her 10th standard but being from an economically weaker section, she was unable to pursue her studies any further. Due to this she wanted to start working but was unable to get a suitable job for herself as she also has a slight physical disability which makes it difficult for her to do strenuous activity. However, this did not deter her from reaching out to Empower Pragati’s DDU-GKY training centre in Samastipur, Bihar. Empower Pragati’s mobilization activities were taking place in her village when one of the staff members noticed a girl continuously looking at them with curiosity. On being approached by the team member, Baby, very politely invited the complete team to her house. Upon entering the house, the team was alarmed to see the deplorable conditions of the family and found out that the situation had gone from bad to worse ever since the sole breadwinner of the family had passed away. They were told that Baby had just passed her intermediate examination and had since discontinued her studies owing to the poor financial conditions of the family. Seeing how enthusiastic Baby was to begin working, the team informed her about the 3 months job oriented vocational training program conducted by the NIRD of India under DDU-JKY in conjunction with Empower Pragati. Baby successfully underwent the trainng programme in the Retail-Trainee Associate course and today works in S.B.I. Customer Service Point Tajpur, Samastipur as a computer operator with a salary of Rs. 5,500 per month. Urvashi Pal, Community Counselor, Empower Pragati Urvashi is from Mehrauli and lives in a family of seven members. Her father works at a private company and earns a monthly salary of Rs. 8,000. Her two elder brothers also work at private companies but do not earn very well. Since the financial conditions of her family were deteriorating, Urvashi decided to lend a helping hand to her brothers and father. She was interested in applying for jobs but was hesitant as she did not think she would qualify. She was afraid to face interviews as she did not think she possessed the necessary skills to appear for them. She joined Empower Pragati’s ‘Saksham’ training centre as she wanted to hone her computer skills and also wished to build upon her communication skills. When she found out that at ‘Saksham’ she would also receive training in the Retail-Trainee Associate course and be provided with placement opportunities, she joined readily. She was a dedicated student and soon after completing the course she managed to join Sbarro as Team Member. She could not believe that she had cracked an interview and was overjoyed with her achievement. She worked with Sbarro for a year and is now working at a Play School as a teacher. After completing about half a year at the school she decided that she would like to help others like her to get an opportunity to transform their lives too. This was when she approached Empower Pragati and applied for the position of a Community Counselor at the very centre that she had received training in. Ever since she joined, she has been working tirelessly to bring more youth from the community to the training centre. Her experience as a trainee helps her communicate to others how she has experienced change personally. Her presence in the community is especially useful in getting the girls out of their homes. Parents are generally hesitant in sending their girl child to a place which offers ‘free training’. At this point Urvashi’s word helps in convincing them to send their girls to the centre. She hopes to give many more such youth such a chance and is still working dedicatedly with the organization. Promila Sarang - Trainer Promila is one of the oldest and most experienced trainers working at Empower Pragati. She began her career in 2001, soon after completing Class 12, when she joined Chetanalaya as a special educator and SHG promoter. She worked there for 11 years before joining Empower Pragati. After completing her Class 12 she did not think it necessary to continue with her studies. She wanted to start working and was never too keen on pursuing a formal education. She says that it was a Herculean task for her parents to get her to study as a child. She loved playing sport and was the crowd puller in her street, so much so that even until today, her street is the hub for children to play in. “ Ye ladki toh ghordi ki tarah dordti hai ” is what the neighbours would say to her parents every time they watched her scampering down the street. She never had any inclination or the desire to score marks unless it meant getting a gift from her teacher. She says that it is this great love for sport that has lead her to inculcate numerous activities in her training delivery. She confesses to making her classroom sessions as lively and participatory as possible as she feels that it helps the trainees learn better. As she was just 18 years old when she had joined Chetanalaya she was initially looked down upon by the senior staff. No one believed that such a young girl was fit for the job she had been hired to do. It was also difficult for her to lead a team of people as no one really wants to listen to a young girl. However, she slowly gained the confidence of her staff members and others through her hard work and friendly attitude. As part of her work she would deliver awareness sessions on issues such as women empowerment, domestic violence, dowry, health and hygiene, pregnancy etc. in the communities that Chetanalaya worked in. She was also a special educator for physically and mentally challenged children. She conducted special education/tuitions for these children where the focus was on how to make them self sufficient when it comes to day to day work. Another sphere of her work was working with the elderly by providing them with medical treatment and medicines. In 2011, Promila met a community counselor from Empower Pragati and just after a brief interaction an interest towards skill development training was aroused in her. She was hugely motivated by the idea of empowering people through livelihood generation. She had always wanted to work with the youth and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. Promila spent an entire month training her co-workers at Chetanalaya before leaving and until today is in touch with the people in the community that she worked in. She joined Empower Pragati in 2011 and what motivates her to keep going everyday is watching the lives of so many young people transform in front of her eyes. She believes that a single positive transformation can be a huge change agent in the society. The youth will directly affect his/her family, which will in turn ring about a change in the environment. After working in Empower Pragati for sometime Promila was encouraged by others to pursue her higher education. She was very reluctant to do but in 2013, she managed to complete her graduation. Promila’s father was a DTC foreman and her mother a home maker. She says that in all her days spent with her family she had never witnessed any kind of violence or disturbances at home. Her father had left his family behind at their native village and migrated to Delhi alone and so it was a nuclear family that she had been brought up in. Until today, Promila’s parents are an inspiration for her. She says that she is forever guided by her parents’ love and compassion toward others. Since the street outside their home was risky for children to play in, their father would keep the hall beneath their house open for the children to come in and play. He loved children so much that he would invite them over and would also give them his daughters’ toys to play with. Today, Promila feels the same love and compassion for her students. A lot of parents come and leave their children under Promila’s charge. They leave it up to her to instill confidence in their wards and change their lives. Today, she has won the trust of the community to such an extent that a lot of students see her as their second mother. While sharing some interesting anecdotes about her childhood period, Promila recollects that the moment the siblings had completed their 10 th standard, their parents would switch roles with them. The girls would now be called ‘ Ma ’ and the parents would be ‘ Beta ’. From that day onward, her parents would transfer all their responsibilities to them. The girls would now have to look after their parents and manage the household too. Her father would come and give his salary to his daughters, who would then decide how to spend it. When asked about the most trying period in her life, she remembers the time that followed soon after the death of her mother. Her father had gone into deep depression and was lost from home for 15 days. No one knew of his whereabouts. The family went berserk looking for him for days only to find him sitting on a footpath chatting with rickshaw pullers one day. He had no recollection that he had been away from home for the past 15 days. He was completely conscious about his whereabouts and recognized his children too. However, he was never the same man again and he too passed away two years later. After the death of their parents, the daughters married each other off independently. They were able to do it because their parents had taught them how to be independent from a very young age onward. Promila has had various opportunities to move ahead in her career but she chooses to stay on because she loves this job of hers. She still remembers every candidate she has ever trained and is in touch with them too. She does not think she will receive so much love in any other job. When her father was lost for 15 days, she had hundreds of well wishers helping her look for him, all because of the small but crucial part she has played in their lives. “Never be afraid of struggle.” she says, “The more you struggle, the stronger you become.” Anita Kumari - Trainer Anita and her family originally belong to U.P. but she has been born and brought up in Delhi. After completing her studies up to class 10 in a Governm ent School, Anita was very unsure about her career path. She did not know which stream to take up and faced a huge lack of guidance. To add to this was her parents’ disinterest in allowing their daughters to continue with their studies and their desire to get them married off soon. Her father told them that he would not be able to support them any further. However, her elder brother managed to convince their father to let Anita continue with her studies through distance learning with the promise that if Anita manages to score above 50% in her first exam she would be allowed to shift to a regular course. Anita scored above 50% marks but her brother did not keep his promise. She was greatly disappointed as she wanted to go to a regular school and receive quality education. Thankfully for her, this time her father sided with her and took it upon himself to get her admitted into a regular course. After Anita completed her Class 12 she was told that she would receive no further financial assistance from the family as they would not be able to afford it. She joined as a teacher at a local school and began earning a salary of Rs 1,600 per month. She worked there for a brief period but very soon her desire to continue studying had her enrolling into a B.A. Programme. She left her job and completed her graduation after which she joined the same school once again but this time with a salary of Rs 2,000 per month. During her time as a teacher, she heard about Empower Pragati’s ‘Saksham’ training programme in Dwarka. Her father had come across a ‘Saksham’ pamphlet and had shown it to her. Initially she did not believe that such a course would be available for free and did not pay much heed to the information. However, one day she decided to visit the centre and after a brief interaction with the trainer was surprised to learn that this free course would also give her an opportunity to sit for job interviews. She underwent the two month course in Customer Service and Retail at the centre and then also enrolled in Empower Pragati’s Debt Recovery Agent (DRA) course and completed that successfully too. Post training she was placed at Serco, Gurgaon as a Customer Sales Associate with a salary of Rs. 8,500. While working there she developed an interest in law and began preparing for the L.L.B. entrance examinations. She managed to clear the examination and so left her job and was admitted into the University of Delhi’s ARSD college (2012-2015). Meanwhile, she also began working at Singh Associate in Dwarka to gain some experience in this field. Before her first semester examinations, she was very worried that she may not be able to clear the exams due to her poor English however, she passed the exam with flying colours and completed her course successfully. All this while she had continued working with Singh Associate and so requested for a raise in salary upon completing her L.L.B. degree. She was asked to go through an assessment to gauge whether she would be eligible for a raise. She gave the assessment and cleared it but left the company as she felt deeply humiliated at being made to go through an assessment even after working there for more than two years and delivering well in every aspect of her work. This is when she posted her resume on naukri.com and received a call from Empower Pragati. She was shortlisted for the position of a trainer and was selected. She joined the Chhatarpur centre on the 24 th of September, 2015 and has since worked at other centres located at Mehrauli and Mahipalpur. Today, she is working as the centre manager at one of the organization’s all women training centres in Chakkarpur. She is today the only earning member in her family and manages the household singlehandedly. Neither her father nor her brother contribute to the family’s expenses and this puts a lot of pressure on her but she strives to work harder every day. Her dream is to become a very successfully lawyer one day and wants to work in the Supreme Court of India. However, she feels that her communication skills are still lacking and wishes to improve. She says that the daily training sessions and constant question and answer with the trainees help her better herself and instill confidence in her. She has also begun taking English classes and attends these classes every day after work and hopes to be able to converse fluently in this language one day. Her greatest inspiration is her father and she wishes to be like him one day. Even after suffering a near fatal accident and being bedridden he continues to try and help with whatever work he can do. Anita loves her job and enjoys instilling values of self-dependency and confidence in the girls at her centre.

No Result