25 years of empowering the deprived

Y. Maheswara Reddy | NT

Bengaluru: Benazir Baig is indeed a ray of hope for unprivileged children and hapless women coming from economically weaker sections of society. She has been working tirelessly for over two decades to educate school dropouts and empower women.

Benazir’s journey began with children working at automobile garages in and around Bismillah Nagar on Bannerghatta Road in South Bengaluru more than 25 years ago.

She was shocked to see these children working for meagre wages and not having any access to formal education. However, convincing these children to attend school was no easy task.

Their parents, most of whom were illiterate, were content with the low wages paid by the automobile garage owners, and did not realise how they were ruining their children’s future.

“I was shocked to come across children working at garages. I tried to convince them to come for tuition at our home. It was very tough to convince their parents. My sister and I began giving tuition to five children. In the beginning, we merely interacted with the children to motivate them. We taught them English letters - A for Amitabh Bachchan, B for Bus and C for City Market - to help them memorize the alphabets without much hassle. We considered it as an easy method to teach children from economically weaker families,” Benazir says with a smile.

She established Raza Educational and Social Welfare Society with a mission to provide education to the children and deliver high quality vocational training to needy adults so as to help them to start small-scale business and have a better standard of living. Its vision is to address the rights of women and children in society and empower them to lead an independent life.

The Raza Educational and Social Welfare Society offers non-formal schooling, formal schooling and is an accredited institution for NIOS, vocational training, and tailoring classes for women.

“We began our journey with five children more than 25 years ago. Now, there are 700 children availing education and hundreds of adults undergoing vocational training,’’ she said, adding that some of the students are already working with software companies and other organizations including BPOs.

Many women from economically poor families attended tailoring classes and became self-reliant. While some of them were able to become entrepreneurs, others have been earning a decent amount by working at garment factories. “We provided basic training in tailoring. Later, they joined a garment factory as helpers and then became tailors. Most of them possess certificates from Singer Sewing Machines Company. Now, these women are earning Rs 22,000 per month thus providing the much needed support to their families,’’ she said.

Now, the latest initiative is to manufacture sanitary napkins from Monday. Ten women have already availed training in stitching sanitary napkins. VIDYA, a non-governmental organization, has been providing training in tailoring for the women.

“We have a tie-up with the MAF to procure the sanitary napkins made by these women tailors,’’ she said, adding that she is grateful to the companies and organizations that provided funds under the CSR initiative.

The donors and volunteers of Raza Educational and Social Welfare Society are Premanjali Trust, National Child Labour Project, Global Fund for Children, Teekays Foundation, Smile Foundation, Dream A Dream, Target, Samvada, Goldman Sachs, Teachers Foundation, Tech Mahindra Foundation, Canara Bank, Rotary Mid Town, and State Bank of India. “We are making arrangements to start admissions for PUC shortly,’’ she said.