CHENNAI: Inside a pink room in Motilal Nehru Street, Pulianthope, the chatter of 10-odd women deftly stitching fabric to bright churidars, and rapidly typing on computers, drown out the honks of traffic. On the first floor of the Arunthathiyar Magila Social Welfare Trust, the Pitt Mac Vocational Centre inside this narrow 250-sq-ft room bursts with possibilities and teaches women skills to help weave livelihoods. Since April 2017, the centre has been conducting tailoring and computing classes for women from marginalised communities, who lack access to education.
As the clock strikes 10, groups of women from across Pulianthope like Gurusamy Nagar, Grey Nagar, Gandhi Nagar, and Raja Thottam Street, mill inside the centre. Slivers of time are stolen to attend classes, between whipping up meals, dropping children off at school, and daily work. Parvathy, head of the magalir kuzhu, says “From as young as 18 to 33 years old, women attend the tailoring and computing classes here, which run for three months. There are five students for tailoring and four for computing per batch.” Till now, their three batches per day have helped over 450 women empower themselves. In the morning, this centre conducts classes for these women, and by the evening, it helps students with their homework and school work.
“This class taught me everything and brought a change in my life,” says 32-year-old Mala, who was among the 236 tailoring students. “In 2005, I got married and moved from Ambur, but I didn’t know how to go around places and wouldn’t go out too. The first place I properly visited after leaving home was this tailoring class, it was so jolly here,” she says. For women like Mala, the centre is a space to venture beyond the domestic sphere. These classes encouraged her to learn stitching, transforming her interest into a skill, she adds.
Curriculum of change
Past the computers and sewing machines are shelves containing dusty heavy records, a dearth of documentation, and a testimonial to magalir kuzhu’s care for their community. Flipping past pages of books with scribbles of measurements, and colourful scraps of fabrics, the tailoring teacher Manju Vani, says proudly, that her students learn fast. “After their lessons, they wear what they made and come the next day. We show the mistake so they don’t repeat it on the next dress. Everyone gradually learns how to stitch chudidhars and blouses,” she says.
A woman shows off the back of her chudidhars with an inventive tie, another smilingly shows her phone — two daughters decked in a paavadai set she stitched from a sari. According to Parvathy, “They don’t need an academic background to study tailoring, just a measuring tape.” By the end of their classes, they can stitch and save money at home and sell blouses for Rs 100-150 or stitch sari falls for Rs 20.
Armed with four computer systems, the centre’s computing courses are a masterclass — typing, Microsoft Suite, Tally, and shortcut codes, these classes have it all. Gitanjali, whose interest in computers peaked when she saw the lit-up screen as a child, says she begins her classes with basics. “We teach them typing and move on to the basics of MS Office, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. We move on to Tally training only if they get 70%. We have three exams for this course,” she says, adding she has been taking classes here for the past six months.
Currently, taking Python courses herself, Gitanjali says she is constantly ideating how to update her courses. As Parvathy points out, in an area with a handful of first-generation learners, this centre has created a positive impact. “With great luck,” she says two women, Sangeetha and Velankanni, secured steady computer jobs after these classes. Currently earning `15,000 at a medical pharmacy, Velankanni says, the course was incredibly useful.
Background and beginnings
Historically, Pulianthope was synonymous with artisans who dabbled in leather, crafting belts and shoes. “After big companies came up over the past 10 years, we were in a situation where there is no livelihood left for local artisans like us,” says Parvathy. Earlier, children would help with leather work at home, but now have a chance to study. “With our livelihoods gone, the opportunities are scarce. In this area, most people don’t have access to education, they go for sweeping work and informal work with low wages, struggling to earn Rs 10,000 a month,” she adds.
Vijay Kumar, who runs this centre and is part of the Freemasons Lodge says, “In 2017, when the Pitt MacDonald Lodge was celebrating its 150th year, I knew we had to do something for this community. This is a community where the girls get married early. By the time, they are 20 or 21, they have two kids and this centre aims to empower the Dalit youth. The idea behind this was to empower the youth and ensure there is a second income for the family. It is transformation, not just empowerment.” His engagement with the community runs far longer and deeper. After the 2004 tsunami claimed lives and washed away homes, Vijay wanted to help the students of Olcott Memorial Higher Secondary School by buying them books, and shoes. He landed in Pulianthope to purchase leather shoes from local artisans. “What I saw touched me. The community is at the lowest of the lowest, these are people who clear our waste, who skin the carcasses and make it into footwear,” he says, adding transformation and access to education are crucial.
This centre, much like a magnet, brings former students back and encourages them to give back to their society. After attending tuition from classes 2 to 12, Gopi V, a MA Political Science Student says, “I thought I should come back and teach here too.” However, students from this community still face pushback, and lack of access. While applying to colleges, Gopi recalls, how a certain university in the city rejected his application, despite obtaining 85%, citing that the area he belonged to was “local and had a bad reputation.”
As the Pitt Mac Centre changes lives one stitch and letter at a time, there is much to be done still. As Savitribai Phule, who started the first school for women, once wrote, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the whole community...your passport to a better future.”
Jute bags made by the women start at Rs 45. To place orders, call: 9841080345