About Us

Usha Silai School program is a pan India, community-based rural initiative of Usha International Limited (Usha). This social initiative aims at skilling women on sewing and stitching and supporting them to set up their own self-sustaining micro-enterprise under the Usha Silai School banner. Usha believes that supporting women to develop their inherent latent potentialities would help bring about holistic development for society at large. Keeping women empowerment at the core of our work, the program’s uniqueness lies in being inclusive and tailor made considering varying landscapes. The program includes women who are rape survivors, manual scavengers, transgenders or suffering with disability, irrespective of their caste, creed, and culture.

The program is being implemented with the support of multiple stakeholders, thus bringing in cross-cultural experiences, expertise, learning, and opportunities at the helm. Over the years, more than 31,000 Usha Silai Schools have been established spreading its wing across all 28 states and 8 union territories of India. The program also has its presence in Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan. Till date, our Usha Silai homepreneurs have cumulatively earned 100+ crore rupees and skilled more than 10 lakh women through Usha Silai Schools.

What We Do

‘The Usha Silai School Program aims at skilling women on technical skill of sewing and stitching, general life skills, and entrepreneurial skills. We also support trained women in establishing Usha Silai Schools and Training cum Production Centres to create self sustaining employment units . This ensures women are self-dependent, have secure earnings and contribute to family’s income which in turn works as a catalyst in building their self-confidence and status. This further prevents early marriages, allows young girls to continue their studies, skill them in earning a livelihood, offers income for better investment, treatment of chronic diseases, puts a check to trafficking and also change in how women are perceived in their communities. Many women who are ostracized by the community as they are manual scavengers, transgenders, physically disabled, rape victims or survivors and many more like them who live a life of despair and hopelessness. Silai School has brought a new ray of hope in their lives, not only making them feel economically productive but mainstreaming them with the community at large.

Our Reach

The Usha Silai School program has been spreading boundaries to tips and nooks of India by reaching the unserved lands of Lakshadweep Island, to southernmost point at Indira Point, to caps in Leh of Ladakh, and foots in Coimbatore of Tamil Nadu.
Map of India- to be shared separately

Program Highlights

USHA aims to work with women in remote villages and believes that by helping them develop their inherent latent potentials, it would go a long way in bringing about holistic development for society at large.

1. Usha has expertise in providing sewing training in twelve regional languages. These are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, English, and Urdu. Training content, sewing syllabus and service machine service manual are provided to trained women is also available in these 12 languages.
2. The program also contributes in addressing few of the Sustainable Development Goals. The following SDGs are central to our strategy and our work ensure they contribute to building a better society:
   a) No Poverty
   b) Quality Education
   c) Gender Equality
   d) Decent Work and Economic Growth
   e) Partnership for the Goals
3. A widespread network of 83 NGO partners with remote rural presence, an understanding of rural sensitivities across India, ability to connect and mobilize communities from remote and hard to reach terrains and a robust MIS system for capturing data in bulks. All in all, exhibiting a proven model for more than 10 years of ground experience.
4. An initiative dedicated for promoting tribal women, Usha recently launched the Tribal Exclusive Silai Schools which ensures that our program pinpoints the specific requirements for women coming from tribal communities and they are provided with equal opportunity in skill development and income generation prospects. Taking into consideration the cultural differences and language barriers we have our expert trainers, collaborate with local NGOs with deep regional presence and connect. This eventually capacitates most vulnerable and marginalized women residing in the unrest belts of the country, act as a deterrent for tribal women joining anti-social units and risking their lives. It most importantly helps preserve the tribal art and craft and link rural artisans with wider market space.
5. Launched the Usha Silai Mobile App where content related to sewing and stitching are shared online with Silai School women. It shares sewing content, which is relevant, understandable and doable. It has been made in such a way that it is user friendly and available in 12 regional languages. Women can learn from videos and documents on how garments can be constructed, accessories can be made and check aspects of sewing machine repair and maintenance. The app is easy to navigate and can run on the simplest of mobile phones. It also has an offline mode where videos and garment drafts can be accessed even when there is no internet connectivity. The users can also ask for content which is relevant to them and also share their feedback in their regional language.
6. In the past we have collaborated with designers like Rohit Bal from Kashmir and Swati Vijaivargie from Rajasthan. This has led to establishment of Production clusters in 5 states where women stitched clothes for designer collections. Usha provided a platform for the designers and women to showcase their work in Lakme Fashion week and sell their products through high-end multi-brand outlets like Ogaan. Rohit Bal’s Guldusta collection was also made by Silai School women from Kashmir. These women have been getting orders from local designers and are being ensured a sustainable source of income.
7. Usha has partnered with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to take general life skills education to rural women. UNFPA has specifically designed the Life Skills module for the Usha Silai School women enabling them to adjust and adapt to changes and challenges brought on an everyday basis. Life skills empower women to connect with self as well as others, deal with stresses and pressures in life and also equip themselves with competence to manage challenging situations as well as optimize opportunities. These skills enhance coping resources and personal and social competencies of women. Equipped with Life Skills women are able to manage their social dynamics, facilitate economic aspects and also live healthier lives.
8. Our endeavor to take Silai School women to the next level of leadership by creating cadre of Master Trainers (MTs) and Local Resource Persons (LRPs). Usha hand picks potential women to further train them to develop as MTs and LRPs to impart training to other women, facilitate and support other Silai Schools, and channelize more avenues of enhancing income to the Silai School women. This regional strengthening of women, inspires and gives hope to many more women to do more in life
9. More than 400 different vendors placed order for 24 lakhs+ masks with the Silai School women. These continued rising throughout the year paving way for income opportunities even in the times of Covid-19 crisis. This proved to be pivotal for many women and their families in providing alternative source of income in the lockdown situation. We have wonderful stories of how our Silai School women along with their learners have contributed to bulk mask production filling the supply gap. They played significant roles during the pandemic, they worked on spreading messages about sanitation, precautions to be taken and preventing the spread of disease. They were also instrumental in distribution of masks to the needy like village elders, small vendors, front line workers, sanitation workers etc.
10. Two of the exceptionally performing women were also felicitated at the Business Women Expo-2021 by COWE for their successful venture in digital marketing. We are continuously working towards advancing digitization and taking this forward. Confederation of Women Entrepreneurs

And so, the program:
– Fosters skill development for poverty alleviation
– Creates women entrepreneurs and promotes micro entrepreneurships
– Breaks gender stereotypes by skilling women in not only sewing and stitching but also machine repair and maintenance
– Nurture female role models for young girls to emulate
– Promotes indigenous art and craft