“Do you know how it feels to purchase something as small as an ice-cream from your own earnings,” 27-year-old Rukhsar asks, displaying a hint of pride that comes with being financially independent.
As she shows her merchandise of beautifully embroidered table cloth to visitors at Apna Basti Mela at Nizamuddin Basti, Rukhsar spools tales of a conservative family where girls were not allowed to study, leave alone step out and earn a livelihood.
Rukhsar recounts the day when her life took a turn for the better when she was introduced to Insha-e-Noor, a women’s empowerment programme by the Aga Khan Foundation that has been scripting success stories for many like Rukhsar for the past seven years now.
Training them in various vocational skills from tailoring, embroidery, crochet etc, the organisation has been helping women in the Nizamuddin Basti, an area where people do not have too many means of livelihood.
A patriarchal mindset coupled with lack of education has led to girls and women in this area remaining dependent on their male family members. Insha-e-Noor has tried to the break years old feudal setup in such families, using traditional skills like tailoring as weapon of liberation.
Says Ratna Sahni, programme coordinator and centre in-charge, Insha-e-Noor, Nizamuddin Basti, “Most of the women we have trained since the inception of this project in 2010, came from extremely old-fashioned households,”
She adds, “When we took the initiative to start this programme, the biggest challenge was to convince women, as well as their fathers and brothers, to let them learn something new.”
Breaking barriers
A patriarchal mindset coupled with lack of education has led to girls and women in this area remaining dependent on their male family members.
Insha-e-Noor has tried to break the years’ old feudal set-up in such families, using traditional skills like tailoring as weapons of liberation.
