Jorwal explained, “Enrolling students directly in regular schools would not foster learning, and the cycle of dropouts and re-enrollment would never end. These children needed an environment where they felt they belonged to the education system and could learn at their own pace. To achieve this, we came up with ‘School on Wheels’ programme.”Soon after, the district administration, along with the Education Department, launched an enrollment drive. As a result, 53 children from Sangrur and 24 from Dhuri block were enrolled in primary schools.Women empowermentAnother significant initiative is the stitching of school uniforms under the Promoting Employment of Households through Entrepreneurship and Livelihood (PEHEL)programme.The government pays Rs 600 for each uniform kit, and the school management committees are empowered to source such uniform kits from vendors of their choice. In Sangrur district, such uniform kits are prepared by women belonging to Self Help Groups (SHGs). This not only provided livelihood opportunities for rural women but also promoted women’s empowerment.Seeing its success, the government decided to adopt and implement this model across the state in 2023.In Sunam, Sangrur, a block-level federation (BLF) called Shaheed Udham Singh Mahila Block Sangathan, involved 167 women in stitching 6,900 school uniform kits for 88 government schools. A hosiery unit for manufacturing school uniforms was set up by the BLF of Sunam in Akalgarh village, provided by the panchayat. Each woman was paid Rs 190 per uniform (Rs 60 as fixed stitching charges and Rs 130 as profit), with one to two uniforms stitched per day.“Women have the flexibility to either stitch uniforms at the center, where sewing machines have been installed, or take raw material kits home and return the stitched uniforms. Quality of school uniforms improved significantly as per the feedback from students and SMCs. The women gained confidence and exposure to the market.Some of the SHG members have ventured into establishing stitching units of their own. This hosiery unit has now expanded to manufacture uniforms for private schools, private security firms, police department, private companies etc, thus increasing the ambit of the employability of the women,’’ said Jorwal.
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