Rural Women’s Training in use of Paper Patterns for Better Motherhood and income Generation

 

Women empowerment is an unfamiliar concept for women in rural areas. To them such glorifying terms do not have much meaning. But they do feel the faint need for empowerment and they do believe in vague measures that give them the power.

Power for them lies not only in big things like voting rights or contesting for Panchayat positions but also  in things as small as choosing clothes for their children or contributing to family income by saving money. These small things add to their importance in family life and give them a sense of fulfillment.

The present article deals with empowering women as mothers of preteen girls and as homemakers. Preteen is a challenging age for motherhood. Preteen is an age between 8 to12. These are also called preadolescent girls. According to DeBord (2008), Several physical, mental and social changes take place in this stage of development. These changes are:

• Growth in weight and height .
• Experiencing body changes (including breasts growth) that indicate approaching puberty.
• Need to feel independent and free to express themselves.
• Need to know and understand “why.”
• Develop a sense of morals based on what they have learned from adults.
• Importance of the peer group increases.
• Want to discuss sex — often to correct information from peers.

Gray and Foltz (2009) list the typical behaviors of children 9 through 12 years old as follows.

• Gaining self-confidence.
• Girls may start puberty spurt of growth.
• May begin to show signs of neglecting personal hygiene while interest in clothing styles and fads begins to be important.

The physical changes are most apparent at this stage. Girls feel embarrassed due to their changing bodies. This is more so because changes in girls’ bodies are more visible than those of boys’. Mothers too feel uncomfortable with the embarrassment of their little daughters. They feel the need to clad their daughters in clothes that take the attention of the viewer away from the developing body parts. At the same time, the dress should be attractive too so that the girl does not feel inferior among her peers.  But the mothers are helpless as the market do not offer appropriate designs this age group. Moreover, the ready made garments are very costly for the rural pockets. So, women can be guided in terms of choosing the right type of dress for their daughters and stitching this dress themselves.

Salwar-Kameez is the most preferred garment for preteen girls in rural Haryana. Therefore, Kameez needs to be designed to fulfil their specific needs. All these designs have features that provide a double layer of garment at chest level so that the changes are less visible. Embellishment should be done with the purpose of shifting the focus of the viewer away from the changing body parts. These designs may be stitched using cotton fabrics and appropriate colours. The kameez should have both, aesthetic appeal and camouflage function. Paper patterns of the constructed shirts can be prepared on butter paper from their drafts on brown paper. Rural mothers can be then trained for using these paper patterns.

Trainings and their Impact

Advantages of Paper Patterns

• Use of paper patterns give chance to stitch kameez at home
• It is time saving to use paper patterns than drafting
• One can adopt garment construction as an income generating activity if paper patterns of different sizes are easily available
• Kameez  stitched by using paper patterns have very good fitting
• With the help of paper patterns, one can do the cutting independently
• If paper patterns are easily available, there is no need to depend on drafting technique
• It is worth spending money on paper patterns of kameez

It has been rightly remarked that training appears to be an invisible input, but their results are highly visible therefore such programmes may be organized frequently to boost up the socioeconomic development and for inducing the behavioral changes. (Mahale et al. 1991)

CONCLUSION

Measures like home sewing save money and also give confidence to little girls as these dresses are more appropriate for their age. Women feel independent while using paper patterns as it helps them stitch garments of proper fit for their preteen daughters. They can also take up this activity at commercial level for generating income and can become a role model for their daughters as well as for other women. In a larger perspective, rural women can be independent and confident as mothers as well as income generators.

Authors:

Prem Lata , Associate Professor and Praveen Punia, Professor , Department of Textile and Apparel Designing, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana,India.

Email: premlata.redhu-at-gmail.com

References:

Karen B. DeBord 2008, Children: How They Grow, Elementary School Children Ages 9 to 12 Department of Human Development and Family Studies, University of Missouri-Columbia  (classbrain.com)

Mahale G, Gavimathu U and Varghese G 1991. Impact of tailoring training programme on knowledge level of rural women, Maha Jour Extn Edu, 10(2): 320-322

Mary McPhail Gray and Terrie Foltz 2009 classbrain.com /artread /publish /article 35.shtml