Ananda Nagar Women's Sewing Enterprise
Project Summary
Women living in the rural villages surrounding Ananda Nagar (Purulia District, West Bengal) face persistent economic hardship, marked by low and irregular incomes, reliance on seasonal wage labor, and widespread underemployment.
The Ananda Nagar Women’s Sewing Enterprise aims to address these challenges by offering six-month work–study internship programs that build strong sewing and stitching competencies among women in the Purulia district. Through this initiative, we seek to equip participants with marketable skills, empower them to achieve financial independence, and support them in ultimately acquiring their own sewing machines.
The Ananda Nagar Women’s Sewing Enterprise is a six-month work–study internship designed to train village women in essential sewing skills. Nine women—each representing a different village surrounding Ananda Nagar—have been selected for the first cohort.
Program outcomes will be assessed through a combination of competency tests demonstrating specific sewing skills, total training hours completed, and income earned during the internship. Each participant will receive a new sewing machine as part of the program. She will purchase this machine using the income she generates from the sale of items she produces during the six-month training period.
All sewing-machine loan payments collected from the participants will be reinvested into the Ananda Nagar Women’s Sewing Enterprise fund and used to purchase new machines for the next cohort of women, ensuring the program’s sustainability and continued impact.
