Every journey begins with a simple step. One act of work, one supporting word, one contribution of kindness is often all it takes to bring faith where it is needed most. Over the last 16 years, the affection of Aspirant Education has built up — and today we have an opportunity to change our nation.
Women Empowerment
We focus primarily on the development and empowerment of women and youth located in rural slums — educating them and bringing the skills and jobs that help them lead a more sustainable life with better livelihood opportunities. Many of these youth and women can find no job to do, nor have the skills to do anything; some manage as domestic labourers or daily-wage workers in factories. The conditions in which they live are marked by low wages, poor nutrition, and a lack of access to healthcare, food, education and training.
We inspire people to be aspirants — relief from the clutches of injustice and adolescent labour. Aspirant Education has vowed to right these wrongs and to ensure the human rights of these women and children are no longer violated.
Nari Shakti — our women's development programme
Nari Shakti is designed to provide comprehensive benefits to impoverished women: practical knowledge, personality development, and skill development leading to placement opportunities.
If a woman is educated, the whole generation will be educated.
Many women are unable to get an education, cannot find decent jobs, or lack the skills to earn — which leads to a weaker economic condition and dependence on others. By providing vocational training to girls and women, we help them achieve things on their own and earn their own livelihood. With vocational training, women can become economically empowered even without a formal job: they can start a business and sell from home, or work as data-entry operators, supervisors in manufacturing units, beauticians, or in the stitching business. Resolving these problems makes a big difference — promoting overall economic growth and improving women's well-being.
Vocational Training Centre
The Vocational Training Centre gives women from the community — girls who have dropped out of school, former female sex workers, and uneducated women — the space to learn beautician, stitching and marketing skills. The Centre is open every day; classes are free of cost and open to any woman who wants to develop these skills. The training provides an alternative source of income and additional profit for their households. The ability to support and provide for themselves and their families is a significant step in empowering women to take authority over their own lives.
Aspirant's popular courses for women empowerment
Stitching skill development course
Aspirant Education started the Stitching Training Centre in 2007 with two non-electric sewing machines, sewing supplies, textiles, and a small salary for a part-time sewing teacher. Since then, hundreds of young women have graduated from the sewing programme with money-making skills and a certificate as proof of their talent. The sewing centre at Ajmer trains up to 250 women at a purpose-built centre in Rajasthan, providing a powerful, supportive environment in which women gain positive skills. Aspirant also provides successful trainees with a sewing machine — an independent source of earning.
Beautician skill development course
Under this programme, more than 100 girls from rural areas are building self-sufficient careers through the vocational skill of the beautician. It opens self-employment opportunities and improves their living. These services offer time flexibility and the choice of where to work; with growing beauty consciousness in rural areas, many women enrol in beautician courses to become self-employed — and interestingly, the majority of aspirants are from rural townships.
The course covers facials, hair cutting, pedicure, makeup, bridal makeup, scrubbing, manicure, applying mehndi, and many more skills.
Impact made: after training, some trainees open small business units at home; most pick up beautician-related jobs. Around 50 women per batch enhance their skills and their standard of living, gaining balanced livelihoods through beauty-parlour training and opportunities for higher schooling — growing into empowered, self-dependent young women.
Food skill development course
The culture of a society is known and remembered through its food, and every state adds value through its traditional cuisine. Aspirant Education offers a skill-development course that gives a detailed understanding of our food culture and legacy — blending tasty food with ancient Indian custom to make beautiful cooking-skill training with all kinds of Indian spices. Without sabotaging our traditions, this programme teaches rural women to be attentive to our traditional food habits, and trains them professionally to become experts and grow into women entrepreneurs. After training we provide a completion certificate and help women settle — so they become financially independent and can work towards self-growth.
Aspirant Education supports socially poor and underprivileged rural women in developing their careers — finding them jobs or businesses to earn their livelihoods.