UP: Migrants, SHGs set up garment unit in Prayagraj village

PRAYAGRAJ: Around two dozen women associated with 10 self help groups (SHGs) and migrant workers from Mumbai who had to return home due to the lockdown have set up a readymade garment production unit after investing Rs 10 lakh in Parsara village under Jasra block in Prayagraj district of UP under the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM).
The women associated with the SHGs have also installed sewing machines imported from Taiwan, that cost around Rs 7 lakh.
The migrants who had earlier worked as tailors and supervisors in Maharashtra’s cloth mills and garment factories have joined hands with SHGs. The migrants said that they won’t be returning to Mumbai even when the situation gets back to normal.
District mission manager (NRLM) Sharad Kumar Singh said, “The readymade garment production unit is being run by around 20 women and a group of migrants from Mumbai. This is the first time when women associated with SHGs have taken loans from the community investment fund (CIF) for a readymade garment production unit in a rural area.”
“The SHG members are using these migrants’ experience about tailoring and technical knowledge about production units to understand the tricks of the trade,” said one of the women volunteering at the unit.
Block mission manager (NRLM) Vedprakash Dwivedi said that the group initially started with sewing readymade clothes for youngsters and adults. “The unit has received orders for readymade garments from different parts of Prayagraj and other districts.”
“We feel happy to have found work at a readymade garment working unit in our own village. As the unit scales up production, we would be getting more work and earning more,” said Rakesh, one of the migrants working at the unit.