Navi Mumbai NGO provides skill training to women who lost their spouses to Covid-19

The list of women endured extreme hardships during the pandemic runs long but for few women the means to hone skill sets has brought about drastic difference

Navi Mumbai: Thirty-three-year-old Sandhya Banpatte, a homemaker, lost her husband to Covid-19 last year. To provide for her family comprising two kids and in-laws, she got herself trained in tailoring and is remembered by her peers for stitching nearly 75 cushion covers on a daily basis. For the labour, she got paid ₹75 per piece. Likewise, another woman, Manju, in her fifties, commuted daily from Dombivali to Turbhe to learn baking. Her husband suffered a stroke and lost his job in a private firm. The list of women endured extreme hardships during the pandemic runs long but for few women the means to hone skill sets has brought about drastic difference.

Most of these women are uneducated and had no idea how to earn a livelihood but with dire situations wherein some lost their spouses or the husbands became jobless or were bed ridden (Stock Pic)

Turbhe based 23-year-old NGO, Arambh, working toward empowering women and educating children from poor economic backgrounds offered the much-needed ray of hope to more than 100 women to brace up to the situation and earn their livelihood.

“Most of these women are uneducated and had no idea how to earn a livelihood but with dire situations wherein some lost their spouses or the husbands became jobless or were bed ridden, the responsibility of running their household landed on their shoulder. Our trust worked to help them earn a living and to develop some skills,” said the founder of the trust Arambh, Sobha Murthy.

Women were also taught to service their own sewing machines too, foreseeing that during lockdown mechanics won’t be readily available.

Since the lockdown imposed in March 2020, the organisation has courses on tailoring, mehendi designs, salon course, baking, herbal soap making and culinary courses. “The women now are leading a decent life, which is motivating for others,” informed Murthy.