Soft toys make for hard earned money

Pragti Rani of Hathin block of district Mewat in Haryana has never travelled out of her village without her family. Today she feels empowered as she is going on a three-month training to learn the skill of making soft toys at the Institute of Toy making Technology, Salt Lake in Kolkata.

Pragti is one of the ten women shortlisted by the Mewat Development Agency and NGO SPYM (Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses).

All the women, aged between 26 years to 33 years, are married, and were shortlisted on the basis of their skill-sets (tailoring, embroidery, handicrafts) and their participation in the self help groups, says the deputy commissioner of Mewat and CEO of Mewat Development Agency C R Rana.

It is a unique public-private participation with two Governments and an NGO taking part in it.

It is a joint venture between the government of Haryana (through Mewat Development Agency) and the Government of West Bengal (the Institute of Toy making Technology is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act and affiliated to Technical Education Department of West Bengal). It trains women exclusively.

Pragti's companions Indu and Sunita do not know that the toys made by them would be sold in the US and West Asia as the institute has a buy back arrangement with Mewat Development Agency and would export them. The institute also has tie-ups with retail chains in India.

One of the senior members of the institute said that Haryana was the only state in the north where this project was initiated, besides three states in the north east.

SPYM got more than 100 applications and out of those, 30 women were shortlisted. The first batch of 10 women would leave for Kolkata soon. This would be done in three phases and the rest of the women would be sent in two batches of 10 each.

Project coordinator Manoj Tiwari has been associated with SPYM for the last fifteen years and says that the change in the mindset of the menfolk of this region was recent.

"Five years ago no man would have allowed their wives to go to a far off place for three months. Slowly and steadily the women of the SHGs proved their worth to their families and made their husbands realise their capabilities for the economic upliftment of the families".

During the course of training, a stipend of Rs 2,500 would be provided along with complementary boarding and lodging.

Meanwhile, Mewat Development Agency is in the process of setting up a production facility near Sohna Industrial Area in Rozkama. Rana says that HSIIDC (Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation) would provide them two industrial sheds. The funding would be done through Mewat Development Agency with all technical Assistance from ITMT Kolkata.

"We will also set up a training centre for toy making at Nuh where these women will train others from the region. Details of this have to be worked out", he says.

After completion of training theses women can earn Rs 3,000 to Rs 3,500 per month or more depending upon the effort they put in.