A headmaster in Hingalganj in North 24 Parganas has initiated tailoring training for young women, most of who are qualified but have had no source of income for the past eight months.

Of the 17 women who have enrolled for the training, four are postgraduates and four graduates.

Some of them used to give tuition but that stopped during the Covid pandemic because parents cannot afford to pay them and have discontinued the coaching, said the headmaster.

He plans to have an exhibition for them to sell the products they make, to help them assess the market, open a bank account and generate a livelihood.

“There are many in the area who have lost jobs. There are girls who have completed post graduation and graduation but have no jobs. There are homemakers who want to supplement the family income. The idea is to provide them with training and help them earn a living gradually,” said Pulak Roy Chowdhury, the headmaster of Kanaknagar SD Institution.

The training is a joint initiative of the school and Mom Sundarban Society, created to work on empowering women in the area.

“We do not want to create only labour but also make small businesswomen who would be able to make and sell their products. They should not be the ones who would cut and stitch while middlemen walk away with the profit,” Roy Chowdhury said.

The women have started making masks and bags of all kinds — backpacks to shopping bags. The training takes place six days a week from 10.30am to 4am.

Soumita Kayal, 25, who has a masters in English has enrolled for the training. She has had no source of income for the last eight months.

“I used to teach English to school students for the last two years since completing my graduation but now there is no one who comes for tuition. Since schools are closed, many of them in the villages think why do the children need tuition,” she said.

Kayal said the pandemic had made it difficult for young people like her to find a job. “The competition is going up and getting a job is difficult. With this training at least if I can make some money that will enable me to meet my expenses and also maybe give some money to my father.”

Like her, 22yearold Monira Khatun, a graduate in Bengali, was doing an internship at a centre in Barasat until the lockdown. “It was a consultancy and they would have sent us to private companies for interviews after the training, but it discontinued during the lockdown,” she said.

The tailoring training began with six machines and an initial investment of Rs 80,000. Roy Chowdhury had contributed more than 50 per cent of the amount.

An associate professor at Jadavpur University involved with the project was surprised to see the qualifications of the candidates who enrolled. “Some of them scored high marks in masters. But it shows that alternative livelihood is necessary when the normal channels are not available,” said Maroona Murmu, associate professor in the department of history at JU.

“Some of these women are educated and once they are able to receive the kind of commercial training that the programme is providing them with they will be able to cater to a bigger market and not just the local market and carve a career out of it,” she said.