HYDERABAD: Indira, 18 years old and a resident of Thario Halepoto village located in the Thar Desert, has become a home-based industrial worker as a part of small-to-medium sized enterprise, to secure herself from exploitation by middlemen. “Few months ago, we worked in the industry through middlemen, who paid us an inadequate amount but after the Thar Coal project is initiated, we earn by sewing school uniforms for Thar Foundation Schools,” said Indira. Motivation and joy manifested on her face as she added, “I can observe that my days have changed. This is my journey towards prosperity,” Indira’s family members are employed at Thar Coal Project but she opted to stay at home, and acquire new skills and get herself trained. 20 Thari women have been selected and trained by the Thar Foundation under Khushaal Naari programme, a women empowerment initiative. Furthermore, the programme aims to develop small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the region of Tharparkar, where literacy rate among women is less than 7 percent. From a broader perspective, the programme tends to improve lives of the local communities by generating economic activities. Moreover, the Thar Foundation plans to enroll 5000 children in the schools and would provide 10,000 uniforms to the students. Another trainee, Durpatta, a mother of 5 children, said that the project is supporting her family with a good source of income and she has started to preserve savings for her children. Chandra, on the other hand, is satisfied about her grandmother’s proper treatment by expert doctors in Umerkot. Shahida considers the skills she has acquired as “assets for the lifetime”. These women entrepreneurs received an order to dispatch 550 school uniforms. Earlier, a group of women was trained for 3 months to enhance their capacity and skills. They were given an understanding about cycle of production of goods and their marketing. The Thar Foundation also provided sewing machines to the women. The project would not only mitigate cost of uniforms but would empower local women through mentoring and business. The 20 trained women have become proud entrepreneurs and they would stitch school and industrial uniforms as well. “At the start, we would grant contracts to the trainees to stitch uniforms for 6 schools. A consignment of 540 uniforms has been piloted to the trainees that would produce Rs12000 for them,” said Raj Kumar, project leader of Khushaal Naari program. “There is a large vacuum for the inclusion of women in every project, and women are resilient, hardworking and dedicated. We are trying to include women in all initiatives of the project. Khushaal Naari is producing women entrepreneurs so that they can actively participate in the economic activities,” said Raj as a reason behind initiative of the programme. Published in Daily Times, April 19th 2018.