First, a million thanks to Mr Venkatesh Narasimhan, MD, Co-optex. Through Co-optex, he has opened a world of possibilities to the community of handloom weavers in and around Dindigul, Tamil Nadu. When we spoke to him in Chennai about supporting the weavers children to study further through ShikshaDaan and other scholarships he immediately made it possible for us to meet with them.

On June 30th, Bindu and I drove first to Dindigul, and then to Chinnalampatti about 14 kms away. At these locations, we met with about 50-60 men and women with extraordinary creative weaving talent and saw the stunning handloom sarees they have woven. These artists unfortunately do not earn enough to pay for their children’s higher education as they cannot weave beyond 8-10 Sarees per month and that translates to earnings of Rs. 10-15000 per month. While co-optex and the TamilNadu government is trying very hard to make the weavers lives better through multiple ways but we all need to pitch in too.

First, we explained to them that there are huge opportunities for meritorious students to pursue their higher education in india, and getting financial support is not an insurmountable issue. We shared the info that there are 700,000 scholarships valued at Rs. 19,000 crores available annually in India and is open to almost all categories of students starting from grade 3 all the way to a PhD program. We spoke in detail about the portal, buddy4study.com elaborating as to how the platform connects scholarship seekers with the scholarship providers.

Next, we highlighted the need for their children to develop good communication skills in English that would enhance their job prospects with examples of those who have benefited.

Then, we made it clear to them that as parents they need to question their children about what they are good at, what they want to become, and why they should look beyond an engineering degree. We also shared examples of people who have succeeded in life by studying in government run schools and colleges rather than private schools and colleges that charged huge amounts of money as fees. Like most other parents in India, for the weavers community too, the first option is to get their children to study engineering.

The interactive session was engaging and engrossing. Parents then asked us a number of questions on the basis of their specific situations and we answered them, rekindling their hope for a better life for their children. We also realised that we need to go beyond this session and need volunteers who can meet and help them and their children by demonstrating how to apply for scholarships. We have already started this process and should soon finalise another interaction where we can get some students to register for the various scholarships. Bindu discussed with Ashutosh, the inspiring founder of buddy4study, and sorted out a couple of procedural issues immediately that could come in the way of applying for scholarships.

A very special thanks to Mr Rao, Co-optex, who not only organised these meetings very well with the support of the weavers’ cooperatives but also accompanied us right through.

Another very interesting initiative of ShikshaDaan has just started. Excited and hoping we can bring some positive change to the weavers lives.