BHUBANESWAR: A welding workshop in City’s Chandaka area grabs the attention of any person walking past the outlet. Packed with rusty junks, it could barely be of any interest to the commoners. But things changed since April. Even as sparks fly everywhere during the peak working hours, the sight of slim fingers - with painted nails - welding pieces of metals incites curiosity among onlookers. As the flame settles down, the worker keeps the face shield aside only to take the passerby by surprise. It’s a young girl!
When the pandemic pushed their families to poverty, three teenage girls turned the crisis into an opportunity to learn a new skill and set the bar for women in a male-dominated profession - metal fabrication. The prolonged lockdown brought miseries to the lives of 20-year-old Rina Bagha and her cousin sister, Jharana Behera. Hailing from Boudh district, Rina lives in a rented house here. She is pursuing Plus II in Arts stream from Maharshi Women’s College.
During March, Jharana had come to visit her sister from Boudh. As lockdown was announced, they got stranded in the city. “Our parents are daily labourers. They had no jobs during the first phase of the lockdown. They couldn’t send us any money to travel back to the village. So, we stayed back here with not even a single penny left in our purses,” said Rina.
Soon, the stocks of food items at their home got exhausted. Rina’s father was not in a position to provide her money for paying the house rent worth `2,000. “We were helpless. It was then that we decided to step out of the house, shunning fear of the virus, to earn money. We knocked the doors of neighbours to seek the work of domestic helps. But people were afraid of the virus. They drove us away,” added Rina.
For around a week in April, they loitered aimlessly in search of jobs. From houses to factories, they inquired for vacancies at all establishments that they crossed in the neighbourhood of Chandaka area. The random search was extremely tiresome and yielded no results until they spotted the workshop. Desperate for money, the girls urged the workshop owner to offer them any odd job.
It was indeed a pleading born out of despair. “They had no idea about welding. Forget that, they even didn’t know what work is carried out at the workshop. But, they were determined to work and earn,” said the owner, Hemanta Kumar Bhanja, who was quick enough to acknowledge their steely resolve. Over the next three months, the girls learnt welding and other skills needed for metal fabrication at the workshop. Now, they are earning `100 per day.
Moreover, Bhanja’s workshop has become the first-of-its-kind in city to have employed three girls. Inspired by these sisters, another girl - Sumitra Pradhan of Anantakeshari village in Kendrapara district - also joined the workshop. Amid lockdown, she turned the sole breadwinner for her family comprising a visually-impaired father, labourer mother and three sisters.
Aspiring for a self-reliant future, the girls now believe that the upskilling will help them start humble businesses in future. “They can go back to their villages later and start welding workshops in remote areas which don’t have one. They can easily earn around `15,000 a month,” added Bhanja.