All of them may not have been able to go to school but a good number of rural women in Rajasthan, who are part of mining giant Hindustan Zinc's women empowerment campaign "Sakhi", are now engaged in stitching uniforms for school going children.
And they are not complaining. Twenty "Sakhi" women from Matoon in Udaipur, recently completed a project of stitching uniforms for 1,000 Anganwadi children in just 19 days, an official statement said.
A similar project of "Sakhi" in Debari in Udaipur is on to produce uniforms for 1,000 boys, the statement added.
Hindustan Zinc, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources, a leading global mining company, had provided professional training to about 125 rural women for stitching school uniforms.
Recently, Hindustan Zinc signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Government of Rajasthan under the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) to adopt 3,055 Anganwadi centres in five districts of Rajasthan - Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Bhilwara, Rajsamand and Ajmer - for five years as part of its global "Khushi" campaign.
Providing school uniforms to Anganwadi children is part of this MoU, the statement said.