From Learnning to Earning

Sunil Kumar Bairwa is a member of a lower middle class family. He is living withhis parents and his three siblings. His parents own a very small shop, similar to a tea stall, where they sell mobile SIM cards in order to earn their living. As the profit margin is quite low in this profession, Sunil was aware that selling SIM cards would not allow the family to meet its needs in the long term. He wanted to help his parents by initiating another business but he had neither the money nor the skills to do so. Sunil was depressed and felt useless. He did not have the tools to support his family the way he wanted. He was confused and angry especially since every time he came up with an innovative idea on starting something new, his parents would just simply reject it without any further conversation. He felt lost, powerless and without anyone to support his dreams.

During the period that GMF was organizing the community meetings in search of eligible candidates, Sunil Bairwa came in contact with us. Immediately after hearing about us and our work, he enrolled himself in one of the mobile repairing courses. His plan was to join the family business and start repairing cellphones in the same shop. In that way the family’s earnings could be increased significantly. With the strong motivation of helping his family financially, he joined the course full of enthusiasm.We were happy to see that his passion and determination remained the same till the end of the program. He was one of the brightest students in the mobile repairing batch and so he was awarded with a special gift and a certificate for scoring the highest marks among his batch mates.

After accomplishing the course successfully, Sunil finally joined his father’s business and started Mobile Repairing in the same shop. Since mobile phones are basically one of the most basic needs in our lives his success was almost guaranteed. Moreover, in Kacchi Basti where Sunil lives, there is no other shop for repairing cellphones and as a consequence he has started getting lots of customers. He is now earning a good amount of money only by doing repairments.In his feedback he shared his gratitude towards GAIL and the Gayatri Memorial Foundation for helping him in such a profound way and for providing such a helpful training, completely free of cost. He mentioned that this program has improved his financial situation but also his social status and reputation.

What this story has showed to us is that ‘Courage is not limited to the battlefield’. The real tests of courage are in our everyday lives. They are the inner tests each person has to go through daily, such as remaining faithful when nobody is looking, enduring pain when the room is empty and standing alone when you are misunderstood.

Saddam’s dream shop

Saddam Husain comes from an extremely poor and marginalized background. He is the eldest among his seven siblings. His father is the sole income producer in the family. Being the eldest son, Saddam always wanted to support his family financially. However, he could not find a good job for himself due to the fact that he has not completed his graduation. Not having any other technical skills was not helping either. He had always had the desire to enroll in a private skill-based course but the high fees were a great obstacle for him. Initially he thought about asking some financial help from his father. After some thinking though, he came to the conclusion that this cannot be a solution as his father had already borrowed money from his relatives so that to meet other needs. So, he had no intentions of accumulating more debts on his father’s already leaned shoulders.

During one of the community meetings of GMF, we came in contact with Saddam. Saddam wanted to join our ‘motor binding’ course. He knew that motor binding is a technical course that can help him earn his living, as motor mechanics are needed everywhere to fix various household items like fridges, fans, coolers, tulu pump etc.

Saddam talked about this meeting to his father. In the beginning, his father did not give him the permission to join the course, thinking that in the end some amount of money will be charged.After a lot of insistence from Saddam, his father asked Saddam to visit the GMF office personally and get the details about the fees. And so he visited our office to make sure that the course is actually free of cost. Our facilitator assured Saddam’s parents and enrolled Saddam in the ‘motor winding’ course. During the entire course Saddam was very dedicated and was one of the most hardworking students. He was eager to learn and therefore he even attended extra classes to absorb as much as he could from this one of a time experience. In the final exams, Saddam scored first in his batch. He was then awarded with a special gift and a certificate by GAIL officials during the certificate distribution ceremony which was organized on 6th April 2013.

For Saddam, hard and focused work was the key to success. After completing the course he started working at an electric shop and started dealing with technical problems of various kinds of motors. At present he is getting a salary of 3500 rupees per month. We have recently came to know that he is now thinking of opening his own shop very soon, so that he can earn more and support his family and his younger siblings for a better future.

Determination of a women

Ms Kali Meena is located in one of the most backward villages of Rajasthan situated in Laxmangarh Tehsil – Todra. She comes from an extremely poor background. Todra is located in the outskirts of Laxmangarh and comes under the Alwar District. It is a very small village consisted by only 25 to 35 families. All of them are immensely poor and their income dependsentirely on agriculture. Kali, the main character of our success story, was married off in the early stages of her childhood due to poverty issues. Her husband is illiterate and earns his living working as a daily wager. It was extremely difficult for them to even earn enough for their daily food.

When Kali was a child, during her school days she was a bright student. She was studying a lot and was eager for new knowledge. She dreamt of getting a degree in computer education and becoming a financially active member in the family. However things in rural areas do not usually work that way. Generally girls are only seen as an additional responsibility and as a burden on parents because they have to arrange a dowry for their marriages. So according to the society’s beliefs, spending money or time on girls’ education is just a waste as they do not contribute to their family money-wise. These kind of social stigmas force girls to have a restricted life with no power to take decisions on their own. As a consequence, Kali’s dream seemed impossible. Affording private course fee was not possible for her so she had no choice but continuing her life as a housewife and taking care of the household chores.

In JAIPUR –GMF had conceptualized a skill based training course in association of GAIL (India) Ltd, Jaipur. This course was conceived especially for the rural drop-outs and unemployed youths, who belong to extremely poor and backward backgrounds. Under this course it was decided to impart the free professional training on Computer Hardware, Mobile Repairing and Motor winding. Before launching the course we advertised about the course at a state level in the national newspaper.

When Kali came to know about the course, which was free of cost, she started to re-live her dream of having computer education and hopefully initiating her own business of computer learning center. She had requested her in-laws to give her permission for joining the course. But her in-laws denied. Nevertheless, Kali had already decided that she would have not given up this golden opportunity and she motivated her husband to convince her in-laws for the permission.Finally they gave her the approval.

Meanwhile GMF was short listing the candidates for these courses as per their interest and knowledge level. During the shortlisting process, our team interacted with Kali and she enrolled herself in the computer hardware batch. She came to stay with her parents in Jaipur in order to attend the course and she completed it successfully. After the completion of her course, she borrowed some money from her relatives and managed to purchase two second hand computers. She then started her own computer hardware learning school in her village. At the moment she has 10 students. She has successfully started her own business and today not only her in-laws but the whole village is proud of her! It was mainly her determination that changed her life and with that as a tool she proved that where there is a will, there is a way"