Tribal women head for cities

By SNV Sudhir

Visakhapatnam: About 600 tribal women from remote villages of Vizag agency areas have got jobs in giant garment manufacturing units in Bangalore, Ahmedabad and Andhra Pradesh.
It was the ITDA and Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty which took the initiative to train 3,000 tribal women in tailoring.
Of them, 600 had a lucky break when whey were recruited by Bangalore based Integra and Arvind Mills of Ahmedabad.
They are now earning monthly salaries of Rs 3,000 with free accommodation and subsidised food.
"Their salary may go up further depending upon their work and some women even went up to the supervisory level where they get a salary of Rs 6,000," said ITDA Project officer A. Sarath.
These women were trained at centres set up in Paderu, Chintapalli and Araku by the State government.
"After seeing the success of their sisters, more women are showing interest in joining the training classes," said the project officer. Unemployed tribal youth were also given training in six sectors including masonry and plumbing. And their services are being utilised in the construction of houses in the Agency areas under the Indira Kranthi scheme.
"Income sources for tribal families are very limited," said Mr Sarath. "They need to depend upon farming or selling forest produce. The returns are meagre. These training classes are a boon for them."