Blog Details
Lalita is from village in north Bengal. Her father worked as floor polisher in Kolkata, and she moved to Kolkata with her mom and sister when she was a month old. In Kolkata, the family grew, with the birth of 3 younger sisters and a brother.
Lalita started earning when she was just 10 years old as her family needed money. Along side work she continued her studies and passed class 10 exams when she was 16, eager to continue studying.
In 2015, her family had to move out of the place where they lived as the government had passed an order to rehabilitate the area. As her father had no money to purchase new land, he was drinking a lot and quarrels in the house were a daily thing. Lalita was very unhappy but helpless, she had to discontinue her studies and was doing part time work to make ends meet.
In 2016, her father took a loan and built a small house. But he was unable to repay the loan, so the property papers went into the hands of moneylenders. The financial situation in the family was getting worse. Lalita started working in an anganwadi in the morning and in a beauty parlour in the afternoon, earning mere Rs 3000 a month. She continued like this for about two years.
In 2017, she learnt about Turnstone and its skill development programme. At first, Lalita could not join the skill devlopment due to the financial problems, but with the help Turnstone she was eventually able to start the skill devlopment program.
There has been a drastic change in her life since then. She has realized that the world has grown larger, she has made new friends, learned to commute alone from home. It gave her self-confidence.
After completing her training with Turnstone, Lalita got a job as Nurse . She started saving money and was able to help her family financially.
Next years during august time, the money lenders came to ask for money Lalita’s father had borrowed. The loan of Rs 35,000 had increased to Rs 200,000 due to an extremely high interest rate. Lalita managed to repay this by taking a loan from coperative bank. She secured papers from their property back from the moneylenders.
This was a great achievement of her and a proud moment for her mother and father. After this incidence her relationship with her father has changed a lot. Her father started supporting her in all the matters and stopped forcing her to get married.
Lalita has since become a skill instructor at Turnstone, teaching other women and become empowered professional nurse.
