Surekha Kavalikatti is 28 years old. She has a four year old son, Nandan, whom, more than anything else, she wants to become financially independent. At the age of 22, she married a business man who has his own milk brand and distributor. She lives with 11 other family members: her parents-in-law, three brothers-in-law, three sisters-in-law, and their three children. She belongs to the middle class Hindu Maharashtra caste.
Surekha completed university, obtaining a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of Kolapur. She then followed an industrial training course and, at 24 years old, started working at home as a tailor, only making clothes for the family. She was essentially a housewife with no income. She did, however, perform some temporary work for Mann Deshi.
Surekha joined the Satara Fashion Project because she was tired of sitting at home and wanted to be productive and learn something new.
“The course was very difficult in the beginning. But after a lot of practice it has become easy.”
Surekha’s dream is to become financially independent from her husband. Fortunately, her husband fully supports her participation in the course.
