The Story Behind: 'A foot in the Padlocked door of social mobility'

Her friendly demeanor, habit of always finding something relatable to talk about, frequent laughter, and ability to make everyone around her feel at ease were indications of her excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

My family always referred to me as the most active person; even in a room full of versatile individuals, I would still stand out. After all, it's called the service industry, and your communication skills are important, which is why I chose to be trained in becoming a beautician. For many years, my life revolved solely around my husband and children. In my community, there are many restrictions on women who work outside the home, which adds to the stigma.

I've always been interested in this; I knew how to apply mehendi and pleat a saree; as a child, I had to teach myself these things when my mother went to work in the fields early in the morning, but it never occurred to me that these seemingly insignificant activities could have a scalable commercial value. I've always been fascinated by personal grooming services; I was called to all of the weddings in my village to dress the bride and apply make-up.

I am a mother of three kids, Sumaya, Aliya, and Reshan. Sumaya, my eldest, at just a tender age of ten, aspires to be a doctor and not only studies well for herself but also tutors other students in her class. I want her to have a better future than I did; she wants to be a doctor and needs to learn English, so she asks me to enroll her in private school, which breaks my heart because we cannot afford it. My husband earns 10,000 rupees per month, which only covers the cost of my children's government schooling.

I realised a long time ago that I wanted to contribute to the household's revenue rather than limiting my life to only revolve around my husband and children. I knew I needed to provide for myself and them so that I could use my skills to give my children the opportunity to turn ideas into action. The problem was that, despite knowing my skill, every training opportunity that would hone it to market readiness, was out of reach. To start a business, I needed to be trained in various skills such as eyebrow shaping, manicures, and so on, and the market price for such training was 2 lakh rupees and that amount of money was not in my budget.

My inability to obtain such training hampered my entrepreneurial spirit, as it often does for women from marginalised communities seeking social mobility. I believe we get stuck in a vicious cycle where, even after overcoming discrimination and household factors, we cannot afford skill training and thus cannot start a business, but thankfully, I was able to break free from this cycle when I was trained at no cost, in all the skills required to become a professional beautician by NSFI. This gave me the confidence to aim higher and start making plans for the years ahead.

The cycle of struggle does not end for me; I still have a lot of challenges ahead of me, but NSFI has given a lot of women like me the opportunity to get their foot in the door to earn a sustainable income. I will definitely move my business from the house to the city, and I will enroll my sister as well, and we will create a thriving salon. The training has assisted me with the development and operationalization of the business model, the establishment of the salon, and the integration of loan requirements with government schemes, but the determination to fight for a better future and hone the skill is entirely mine.

I hope I inspire many women that desire social mobility and will draw inspiration from my journey!