Skills and Education
Women and girls are trapped in a cycle of poverty by a lack of diverse and market responsive education and skill building opportunities. Many girls are pulled out of school to take over household responsibilities and never develop the skills to enter the job market.
Achievements
- 513 girls trained in 2014
- 227 job placements since 2012
- Increased number of courses for and opportunities for Delhi’s poor girls
SEWA Delhi believes in adolescent girls’ future. The skills and education program focuses on youth development through:
SEWA Delhi Polytechnics
Since 2011, SEWA Delhi has set up two polytechnics in deprived areas, Bhajanpura and Ashok Nagar, to fill the gap in quality training institutes that are accessible to the urban poor. Importantly, the SEWA Delhi Polytechnics provide policy makers with a good set of practices and guidelines to promote participation underprivileged girls in technical and vocational education.
Programs are eligible to girls 14 years and above. In 2014, the youth development program connected a total of 513 girls to diverse, market-relevant courses. All the courses offered develop girls’ soft skills and provide personality development, leadership building, spoken English and team-work experience.
- Six-month training courses: Graphic design, fashion design, customer relationship sales, beauty culture, basic IT, cutting and tailoring, embroidery, and customer and sales relations
- Advanced training courses in textile design, graphic design, fashion design, spoken English and personality development, and bank clerical / financial literacy training
- National Institute of Open Schooling is an ongoing partnership to help girls prepare for class X and XII, particularly in English, Science, Maths, Home Science and Painting.
- Non-Formal Education classes are for dropouts (adolescents and women) in order to prepare them for re-admission in both private and government schools.
- State Bank Academy provides training to students for appearing in bank clerical examinations. The students are trained in three main subjects: Mathematics, English and Reasoning, while some classes in Marketing and General Knowledge are also held. These training sessions take place on every Saturday and are conducted by the SBA faculty. Regular tests are also held.
- Developing Partnerships SEWA Bharat is currently engaging with a number of different organizations in order to strengthen its youth development activities, namely: NIIT Foundation, NSDC, NIOS, Thomspon Press, Samuel Foundation, Career Launcher, and FICCI, and the Directorate General of Employment and Training (DGET)
SEWA Rozgaar Kendra (job placements)
The SEWA Rozgar Kendra is the Polytechnic’s strategy to mainstream girls into employment. The job placement unit connects girls to jobs, internships, and the capital necessary to kick start bright careers and break out of poverty. In the past two years, 227 girls have been connected to jobs. Over fifty girls gained placements in 2014 and are helping contribute to their family income by earning between Rs. 3,000 – Rs. 7,000 per month.
- Internships and training: SEWA Delhi connects girls to programs in its polytechnics and offices so that they can experience formal working environments, develop the skills to prep them for employment, and are active in creative projects
- Ruaab SEWA internship: Girls engaged in SEWA Delhi vocational training or courses in fashion design, embroidery, and stitching and tailoring can be placed in Ruaab SEWA. The one-year program incubates girls to prepare them for working in Ruaab or other export houses.
- Supporting girls’ entrepreneurship: SEWA Delhi connects girls with the Mahila SEWA Urban Cooperative Thrift and Credit Society to give girls special loans in order to set up their own vocational training centers and enterprises.
SEWA Youth Resource Centers (Vocational training)
SEWA Shakti Kendras (SSKs) are utilized as SEWA Youth Resource Centers where vocational training is accessible to underprivileged girls. Market-relevant courses in computers, embroidery, and cutting and tailoring are provided, and new courses are added as per members’ and students’ demands.
Vision and replicability
SEWA Bharat has plans of replicating the similar model in Katihar (Bihar) and Murshidabad based on the demand of the women members in the respective areas as well as the pressing need of skill development programs to enhance the employ-ability of young daughters of poor women.
SEWA Youth Connect
Launched in 2013, SEWA Youth Connect is a 6-month mentoring-program that connects young committed University students with marginalized girls aged 15 to 25. The mentoring relationship aims to support the girls’ development towards a more self-reliant and independent personality and foster their potential and visions for a promising future. At the same time the college students will broaden their horizons and earn experiences that will be significant for their later life, both personally and professionally.
The program aims to break the cycle of poverty, while simultaneously tackling the systemic problem of class, caste and religious prejudice by building personal relationship between the participants.
Youth Connect Pilot success
Youth Connect has reached 120 young girls in last four years and engaged them in intensive one-to-one developmental work with the focus on holistic growth. The Youth connect program was launched as a pilot program in December 2013 with 11 pairs of girls. Taking forward the success of the program, it expanded to 14 pairs in September 2014. In April 2015, 13 pairs joined Youth Connect, the unique mentorship program for positive youth development. This year with remarkable progress, Youth Connect has 22 pairs of young jubilant women associated with it with a vision of bright empowered future.
Check out the girl’s Youth Connect Blog for their own stories, experiences, and photos!
SEWA Youth Festival
The SEWA Youth Festival is a annual event for marginalized girls across Delhi to showcase their talents, aspirations, and passions. At the Youth Festival, SEWA Delhi youth and girls from different NGOs participate in competitions and performances. Key role models and political dignitaries are also invited to the SEWA Youth Festival to build a strong case for the Government of Delhi’s continuing support of poor girls across the city.
On 13 December 2013 in Shah Auditorium, Delhi, SEWA held its Youth Festival 2013. Over 750 including 250 students and 500 SEWA members, came to celebrate the day. Chief Guest Smt. Rashmi Singh, executive Director of the National Mission for the Empowerment of Women, Government of India, and Guest of Honor, Dr. Laksmi Devi, Principal of the Shaheed Rajguru College of Applied Sciences for Women, University of Delhi also joined the event.
SEWA Connected with eight NGOs and girls participated in competitions in dance, debate, drawing, creative writing and fashion design. Uniquely, the event served as a platform for cross-generational storytelling as SEWA women members and their daughters shared their testimonies and experiences within the SEWA movement. To boost the confidence of every participant certificates and awards were given.
SEWA Youth Clubs
Through SEWA’s engagement with youth in vocational training, we recognized the immense potential but also lack of confidence and opportunities available to this group. Youth Club was formed for the young girls associated with SEWA Polytechnic and SEWA Youth Resource Centers to get involved in activities that build their confidence and keep them associated with SEWA. In the Youth Club run out of SEWA Shakti Kendras, girls learn English, hone profession skills, develop confidence, participate in games and group discussion, and are engaged in current affairs, creative courses, and awareness sessions like legal rights and healthcare.
Due to the success of the Delhi model, SEWA Youth Clubs have been started in Rajasthan’s SEWA Youth Resource Centers and are beginning in Bihar.
At present SEWA has three Youth Clubs in Delhi that run in the SEWA Polytechnic (New Ashok Nagar), Gender Resource Centre (Sundernagri) and SEWA Youth Resource Center / SEWA Shakti Kendra (Rajeev Nagar). There are between 20-30 Youth Club members at a time; girls are in the age group of 15-25 years and meet once every 15 days.
SEWA Youth Explore
SEWA Youth Explore invites guest speakers to meet with girls in order to give girls professional role models and expose them to diverse career opportunities. In 2013, 15 guest lecturer sessions connected with an audience of 450 young women.
