In a set up where the girl child is left behind from schooling in order to manage the household chores, Ankita’s parents always encouraged her to complete her schooling and graduation. The journey was unknown but she said to herself “to be born poor is my destiny, but to die poor shall be counted as my foolishness”. With the Bunkar Sakhi Training Program, she felt she had found her path. Her parents supported her decision to undertake the 3 months training session for weaving. As she cycled her way to her college 20 km away from her home, her heart would fill with the joy to realize that she would adopt a new skill, acquire new know-how, and transform her life in years to come. Hardly did she know then, that this project would bring her to the forefront where she would get to lead others. Ankita turned out to be a fast learner. Despite starting off 15 days behind the schedule, Ankita quickly learned the steps of weaving. One knot to another, her talent and determination kept multiplying. Each day of progress at the loom made her feel more and more responsible. She felt she has to live up to her parent’s progressive outlook as well as tag along with others like her in this journey.
During the entire training, Ankita stood tall for her extraordinary skill set, a deep sense of responsibility, and magnetic people development attitude. The JRF team recognized and nurtured her to develop herself and others around her and help them adopt weaving as a means to independent livelihood. Ankita attended all the project meetings and trained to handle multiple issues involved in the daily management of tasks and people.
Today, Ankita works as a Bunkar Sakhi (quality supervisor and Weaver manager) to 11 girls and 15 women. The team of 26 women weavers looks up to this 20-year-old for design interpretation, weaving guidance, and conflicts that arise at their home. Ankita is trained to collate and transform daily performance data of each weaver. This young girl, cycling her way to work and college represents the power of an educated rural woman whose onset as an influencer in rural India marks the beginning of ‘lifting the veil’. She has helped many veils lift up in the name of skillful existence.