2015 - It was a time of pushing boundaries to get equality for women, and there was a focus to bring greater 'gender diversity' into male dominated courses like electronics and welding.
Whilst there had been a 'breakthrough' in bringing male candidates into the Nursing trade, not one girl had registered for the electronics course.
The SEDI team at Ambujanagar re-grouped. Surely an onslaught of community mobilization and awareness raising could turn some heads towards this career path for girls?
They coordinated night meetings. Sat at length with youth. Sipped cup after cup of chai as they heard out the concerns of parents and appeased them. And still, not one registration.
Electronics repairing involves mostly physical hard work, and yet globally, women are taking up the trade with gusto and building viable livelihoods.
How could the Ambuja Foundation team help these young girls see the opportunity? In a last ditch attempt to convince families, the team visited villages with laptops, and screened videos of females working in the electronics trade around the world.
The result? 5 female candidates came forward for enrollment. After completing training, the graduates were placed in Genus Electrotech, Gandhidham - the first females to work in the production line of the company!
So what do employers think? Well, one batch of female trainees were awarded for completing 30 days' worth of work in just 5 days! Surely it must be a record.
With the success of this first batch, many new girls have come forward to follow suit, and to date, SEDI Ambujanagar has trained 214 girls and all of them have been placed in jobs in the electronics trade.
