Meet the Family Helping Thousands of Rural Women Learn Stitching, Computers & Earn Money |
On most mornings in Kolia, a soft mechanical buzz rises from a small room where sewing machines line the floor. Women sit shoulder to shoulder, guiding fabric beneath the needle. Some pause to correct a stitch. Others exchange smiles when their lines finally come out straight. A trainer moves between the tables, adjusting thread tension or demonstrating a technique with patient movements.
For many of these women, this room marks a return to learning after years away from any classroom. For some, it is also the first time they are earning an income of their own.
The space where they sit once functioned as a maternity hospital. Years ago, its corridors felt uncertain and its future unclear. Today, the same walls hold different stories. Women discovering skills they never thought they could learn. Children touching keyboards for the first time. Families finding stability through steady work.
The transformation did not happen overnight. It grew from decisions taken over many years by a family determined to remain connected to the village they came from.
The story of this work begins with the Gupta family’s long relationship with Kolia. For generations, they watched elders step in whenever the village faced hardship. That sense of responsibility guided their choices when the maternity hospital they had set up in 2007 struggled to grow due to limited government support and the difficulty of finding doctors.
“There was a need for a maternity hospital in our village, but due to a lack of government support, we were not able to scale for about three to four years. The hospital lacked doctors and felt like a failed plan, but we did not lose hope and instead created a skill development centre for the people of our village,” says Babulal........