Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
NORTH ZONE
Storming the male bastion
|
The Association of Non-traditional Employment for Women provides a new lease of life to the underprivileged by offering rare employment opportunities
|
THE ASSOCIATION for Non-traditional Employment for Women (ANEW), a non-profit organisation in Anna Nagar, helps women from an underprivileged background develop vocational skills that will help put bread on the table for their families. True to its name, ANEW offers two courses - autorickshaw driving and two-wheeler mechanic training - that are seen as a male's bastion.
Kalairani, who was trained by ANEW to be an autorickshaw driver, says "joining the course offered by ANEW has turned out to be a good fortune that cannot be enthused over enough". Deserted by her husband, she was lumbered with the responsibility of bringing up her child all alone. Today, a job as autodriver for children studying in Chinmaya Vidyalaya is helping her bear that weight of responsibility. ANEW, with a fleet of 10 autos, has so far trained nine women to be auto drivers. These autos are used only for taking children to and from schools. Each auto has been modified by engineers of Bajaj Auto Ltd. to comfortably accommodate eight children.
If you drop in at Khivraj Motors, you will notice spanner-wielding women hunkered near two-wheelers. These are women mechanics that have been trained by ANEW. A batch of students are currently on an internship with Khivraj Motors. Vatsala Ramakrishnan of ANEW says Khivraj Motors has provided the entire infrastructure - tools and two-wheelers - for practical work. The skills acquired by these "new mechanics" will be further put to test when they go to the TVS two-wheeler workstation for quality certification.
ANEW also offers a couple of computer courses. One is DCA (diploma in computer applications) and the other DTP (desk top publishing).
In its early days ANEW, which saw the light of day in May, 1997, did not offer any of the afore-mentioned courses. It confined itself to only one - home care assistance. This course trains young women to work as home-care nurses. A qualified nurse at the centre puts the trainees through a two-month theory session. Thereafter, the trainees undergo six weeks of practical training at Dr. Rangarajan Memorial Hospital, Anna Nagar and K.J. Hospital, Egmore. The last two weeks of the course are spent at old age homes such as "Little Sisters Of The Poor" for training in geriatric care.
While this course and the computer courses have many takers, the non-traditional courses are yet to catch on. "They will," says Vatsala. She has reasons to be optimistic. "ANEW's beginnings were humble. The number of students were few. Slowly ANEW's work spread by word of mouth, as also through NGOs whose focus is women's empowerment. Today, ANEW has trained over 700 women (all courses put together) and also found suitable employment for them."
ANEW is supported by donor members, corporates such as Dr. Rangarajan Memorial Hospital and Cookie Man, and a few NRIs. To get its future projects on the road, ANEW has embarked on a fund-raising mission. To start with, it has organised a fund-raiser for October 19, when a light music programme at Kamaraj Hall will witness Lakshman Sruthi and playback singers such as Manickavinayagam and Sujatha belting out songs.
ANEW can be contacted at 3362/ A2, AE Block, 8th Street, Anna Nagar, ph: 26210492, e-mail: anew@vsnl.net.
PRINCE FREDERICK
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Metro Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Delhi
Hyderabad
Kochi
|
