Slums in the city of Allahabad/Prayagraj have always been a great reason of misery and evil. The slums are situated on the outskirts of the city and pose a great danger to society and also to the slum dwellers. The slums are in a very bad shape as they are very densely populated and have no proper ventilation and no enough place to move about. There are no decent dwelling places as the houses are made of bamboos, clothes, sack clothes and some iron pieces. Most of the people living in the slum are either rag pickers or cycle trolley drivers or working in some guest houses or hotels as waiters or cleaners. The women many of them are working in the house of other rich people helping them to cook, take care of their children or busy in sweeping and cleaning the house.

With all these works around they hardly earn some money to have two square meals per day. The men are mostly found to be under the spell of alcohol and so whatever they earn it goes down the lane as alcohol. The women who earn have to struggle to make both ends meet. There are many other evil practices in the slum such as gambling and violence against women, rape and murder. Ninety percent of the slum dwellers are not educated and so they fall as prey to the rich and the powerful.

In the midst of all this there is a big group of Adolescent girls who are being suppressed and suffocating in the midst of this misery. We chose to work out some measures to make them aware of their capabilities and make them to stand in society. We started with two vocational and income generation training in the slums, such as Tailoring and Beautician Course. Many of the parents were not ready to send their girls for this training. The teachers and the animators went from house to house convincing them that the course that we are offering has a deep tooted benefit when it comes to the individual girl and the family.

After much persuasion, some of the parents agreed to send their girls for this income generation training programme. We started with 7- 10 girls in some centers and then gradually the number grew. It took a little time to make them realize the advantages of learning how to stitch. After some time we started to get students as the girls shared with their parents about what they learnt and how that would be much useful to them in the coming years. They came to know how much it would help the family financially and give them better standards of living.

A. BEAUTICIAN’S COURSE:

The whole world wants to be beautiful and good looking. The girls in the slums are not much unknown to the world and to the standards of beauty and fashion. The girls for the beautician course were easily available because it has not much investment and you could gain much money in a short period of time. The batch contained 20 girls from the slums who joined for beautician’s course. The teacher, who came forward to train these girls, is a professional who has learnt this course from a professional institute. She has been working in the slums for the past 5-6 years. She has been very much grounded in the village reality and so she was aware of the ground reality of the slum dwellers.

The girls in the beginning were scared to move into the subject as for the first time they had come into a training of such kind. Many of the girls had never gone to school and had never stepped out of their houses. Some of them had some elementary schooling and then left the school for want of money or the burden of the house came upon them. Some of the adolescent girls were working in other houses and so had to adjust their tie accordingly. A very few girls had problem in doing justice to their training classes and work pattern. Many of them adjusted and made it a point to reach the training sessions on time.

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE TRAINING:

The various things that were taught to them was eye brow threading and giving the eye brows a shape; facial; pedicure; manicure; bleaching the face; various kinds of haircut; make up of the face and cleaning of the face etc. Many of the girls during the course itself had started to practice these in their neighbourhood on a small payment. In the center where they were being trained the custom was that they would practice these makeup tips on each other. They had to avail themselves for these learning sessions and be a model to be worked upon. The group was very much, committed to the programme and they never wasted time in learning.

The adolescent girls who had picked up some of the skills had started to practice them wherever they went. In the times of festivals and other joyous occasions the people in the slums requested these girls to assist them for makeup and these girls earned something to contribute to their family. Many of the girls by the end of the fourth month were taking up appointments from women who needed help in makeup. The people in the slums found it to be cheap and good and they were ready to support the girls of the slum in earning some money. What was available in the market for Rs.500/- was available in their neighbourhood for just Rs.200/- only.

In short the six months programme for learning to be a beautician was well attended. The parents were also very much satisfied when they saw that their daughters had started earning some money to support the family. The fast money that they earned became a source of great support for their family and themselves. Some of them have planned to put up their coaching institutes to help other girls and make them self reliant. Some of the adolescent girls have decided to get back to their studies because they now have the resources to fulfil their dreams.

B. TAILORING COURSE:

Tailoring Class is a very beneficial way of earning money. There are few people who are engaged in tailoring and very few women who are stitching clothes. In reality there is no possibility of putting shops for tailoring and so many of them are tailoring from home. At home they have no much place and so not many are taking up tailoring. In the background of all this we launched out a programme to help them in learning stitching to help them in life.

In the beginning the teachers and the animators went from house to house finding out and interviewing them of their background and their financial stability. We were looking for the very poor and families in much distress. There were also some women who were newly married and wanted to help their family and be of support by learning tailoring. We managed to have three centers of tailoring in three slums where many of them could reach without much expense.

The three tailoring class was situated in such a way that we could get about 15-18 girls for learning. The three teachers of the tailoring class were women who had been teaching stitching in other areas and were well versed in their profession. The classes were conducted for a period of three hours. The most difficult thing was the regularity of the girls for the class. It was a daily complaint to get them on time because they were also working in some other people’s house as cooks and sweepers and cleaners and babysitting.

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE COURSE:

With all these we managed to figure out a time table to help them learn tailoring. The thigs that they were taught are as follows: Baby’s pants. Baby’s Shorts, Handkerchief borders, ordinary blouse, petticoats, pants, umbrella frock, ordinary lady’s suit, payjama, round frock, ordinary skirt, pallaso, top for the girls, samosa salwar, chudidaar salwar, ordinary salwar, frill frock, collar kurta, Arabic blouse and garara etc.

C. ACTIVITIES ACCOMPANYING THE TRAINING:

There were also many activities conducted in the slums along with the training programme. The mission was not only to provide them some training for livelihood but also to prepare them for life with the needed awareness of various aspects of life.

The activities conducted a are as follows:

a) COVID awareness programme:

There were sessions conducted in the Slums to keep them warned about the spread of COVID-19. It was not enough to know the existence of the Virus but also to train them in preventing the spread of the virus. As we all know that slums are places which are densely populated and they are always in contact with each other. They are more prone to be infected by such diseases as they live in groups and cannot maintain social distancing. We had session on the awareness of how to prevent COVID-19 by publicly depicting to them how to wash their hands, how to wear a mask and also keep their surroundings clean.

b) Health Camp:

Health camp was conducted in all the four centers. We had mainly requested the adolescent girls from the Training programme to come over for the health checkup and this was also geared as a chance to talk to them privately about their health and the importance of being truly aware of the necessity to keep their body clean and be aware of the various hygiene tips for life. Almost all the girls were present for the health checkup and some of the ladies and girls who were not the part of the Training programme also were present for the health camp. Some came because of curiosity to know what was happening in the health camp. A well-qualified doctor Mr. Amir along with Rev. Sr. Marianne and supervisor and teachers to help were present at the venue. The programme was a big success as we could speak to many girls privately and we could clear their doubts and also clear lots of misconceptions they carried in their mind.

c) Celebration of Gandhi Jayanti:

Gandhi Jayanti a national feast and a homage to the Father of the Nation was celebrated on 2^nd October 2020. It was to commemorate the great contribution made by Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi in attaining freedom for India from the clutches of British. The Training camps had invited some of the important person of the locality to be the chief guest for the occasion. The great moral and ethical values of Gandhiji was remembered and the girls present were encouraged to imbibe the spirit of Gandhiji in inculcation values such as Non-violence, speak the truth, honesty, discipline in life, fasting, standing for one’s rights, hate sin not the sinner etc. The girls took a pledge to be dedicated in life and the walk the road shown by Gandhiji.

d) Celebration of Republic day of India:

Republic day of India is celebrated in the whole country with great festivity on the 26^th of January every year. It’s the day we coined our Constitution and we have set up the system of governance. The day was celebrated in the slums with great joy and a short programme was arranged in the Slum training centers to reactivate the spirit of patriotism. Each center had invited the local leaders to unfurl the national flag and sweets were distributed. Prolonged programmes could not be held due to Corona.

e) Graduation Ceremony:

The day of Graduation ceremony was held in the DDWS Center at Allahabad. The girls who had attempted the exams and had successfully passed the exams were called to be given the certificate of excellence. The programme began with a welcome to the teachers and the girls by the Director himself. This was followed by the sharing of experience from the four batches out of which three were for tailoring and one for beautician. The instructors had also accompanied the girls and so it was a great moment for the girls to share their experience and also thank the teachers for their commitment and dedicated service in training these girls to achieve something in life. Then came the chance for the girls to express their suggestions for a better running of the vocational courses so that the next batch would have improved set up for the classes. The most important time of the programme was when the teachers were called upon to share their experience and also give some tips for the outgoing children in making use of their learning to have a better standard of life. Later the certificates were distributed to the girls. Photographs with the teacher was also captured and then came the most exciting and thrilling moment of the day when four girls had come with the dress they had stitched for themselves by their own hands. That was truly very consoling to see, that they had already come up to a standard to settle things in life and also ready to launch out into the world with great strength and vitality.