A total of 20 rural women were trained during a five-day hands-on skill workshop conducted by the Skill Development Centre at the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU).
The training, christened ‘Employment through Handicrafts’, was aimed at making women self-reliant.
Rupinder Kaur Toor, associate director, skill development, said the course exhorted the women not to remain confined to the household chores, and come out of their comfort zones and contribute to socio-economic stability of their families.
“Seeing a soaring demand among Punjabi diaspora, handicrafts have always been an attraction. The PAU is laying emphasis on polishing commercial skills of women, which can help them multitask, in addition to home-related chores,” she said.
Sharing a list of skill development trainings, Kulvir Kaur, assistant home scientist, advised women to become self-reliant for family welfare.
Course coordinator Prerna Kapila promoted handicrafts as a side-business. Kapila, along with Kulvir Kaur and Kanwaljit Kaur, demonstrated tie and dye, batik printing, fabric painting, making of colour schemes, preparation of articles with block and stencil printing, hand embroidery, ribbon-use and mirror work, among others.
Jaspreet Kaur, Ravinder Kaur and Bindia demonstrated making of artificial jewellery, decorative pots and artificial flowers.
Later, all the hand-woven items were displayed at an exhibition organised by the Skill Development Centre.
MS Bhullar, Director of Extension Education, lauded the participants’ skills, and urged them to promote skill-oriented occupations among the fellow village women for stable social-economic life.
