First Ever Batch Of Female Electricians To Graduate From A Thane College In August

First Ever Batch Of Female Electricians To Graduate From A Thane College In August
SheThePeople

Two students are readying their motors for a project that will enter the inter-college competition that will culminate in the National level competition this year. While one has created a set-up where one can control the speed of the Conveyer belt that runs on a D.C motor with their cellphone’s bluetooth device, her colleague is making a solar-powered car with the help of a toy model. 20-year-old Ashwini Pandhare thinks her Bluetooth controlled motor will help industries that have conveyer belts, or could be used in locomotives as well. She is one of the 17 girls in the senior year of electrician training at Industrial Training Institute (ITI), Thane that begun this course two years ago.
Although the path to becoming licensed electricians is a few years away, the girls are positive about clearing their final exams next month. To get their licenses, clearing their two year course is not enough though. They will have to complete apprenticeship with relevant companies after which another exam will decide their professional fate. Their 70% practical and 30% theory system surely looks like a successful combination. The fact that women from across the state have gathered here just to become electricians is still rather unusual for a country like India though, where jobs remain highly dictated by gender, class and caste.
ITI college is a girls only institute in Thane that teaches many skill based and vocational courses right from electro-mechanic, computers, sewing, beauty parlour training, fashion technology and interior decoration and designing. Jyoti Lohar, Principal of ITI Thane, joined the institute in 2012. She has received electrical training and was designing transformers for a company before coming into the education field. She immediately noticed the trend of girls not finding seats in colleges for such technical courses. “In 2014, when this new scheme was launched by the central government, all the ITI’s in the state implemented it. What I noticed was that for the batch of 21 students per year, 17 of those spots were being taken by boys on merit and many girls would have to wait for consecutive years to get in. With the girls only institute, we could have a separate batch for girls. I faced some opposition for introducing this as people were wary of girls taking up this course. This institute was also focusing on feminine trades. I was afraid that no girl would turn up but I was surprised when the admission process started. We still have 50 girls in the wait-list and the number keeps growing,” she beamed. The bone of contention she still has is the negative marking system for a wrong answer in the theory paper. “For every wrong answer, they will lose marks, which is rather unfair. I am working towards phasing it out, let’s see what happens,” she said.

Students practising their skills at ITI, Thane

So what brought girls from remote areas of Maharashtra to take up this course in hopes of becoming an electrician? Two girls have travelled all the way from Bhusawal which is over 450 kms from the city. Sonali Tayade and Jyoti Baviskar took admission together and have big dreams for themselves and their village. 27-year-old Sonali wants to go back and work for the famous railway junction and help the electricity woes of her hometown. “Our families allowed us to study here only because both of us would be together. We thoroughly enjoy studying this subject but were a little afraid at first. We have no background in this and have studied in Marathi medium schools. After coming here, a lot of doors opened for us. Earlier we had a mindset of only taking up government jobs but our thoughts have changed,” she said.
Not only Sonali, girls from Nagar, Ravel, Ambernath, Bhatsa, Turbhe and more have come to become electricians here as well. 17-year-old Shraddha Lonare saw a mixer-grinder for the first time in her life after coming to the college and had to learn how to fix it. “None of us have seen a microwave oven either. You don’t have refrigerators, washing machines and other electrical appliances in the village. Now I have learned everything from our instructor Deepak Sonar and can fix all of this and more. Sir explains everything patiently,” she said. 19-year-old Swati Sonavane wants to gather enough experience so that she can solve the load shedding issues of her village and bring some good technology there.
Many girls had to face opposition from families as they thought this work was not suited for them and they couldn’t live so far away from their homes. “Girls come with a lot of insecurity. We counsel them but we focus on counseling the parents as well. We motivate them and the girls have excelled beyond our expectations,” said Lohar.
Chatter about domestic wiring, overhead lines, power distribution et al is not uncommon in these classrooms. What is common though are their feelings about the Tata Power Varap plant where they worked on electrical poles and simulators. Girls cheer in unison talking about their experience. “It was a one of a kind hands-on practical lesson which lasted for two months. They were given uniforms, equipments and training by professionals there. We thought they would not climb all those poles but they did it. We keep learning and updating ourselves and teaching methods as we move ahead as it is new for both of us, the teachers and the students,” said Lohar. She is also working on a plan to take the students to Bhatsa Hydro-electric power station.

ITI girls climbing electric poles at Tata Power Varap plant
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Out of the 21 students, four have had to drop out from the course. “Parents, marriage prospects, inability to pay the fees and more are some of the causes. The class topper had recently stopped coming as her four-year-old child died. She is not in the state to appear for the exams next month and her classmates and instructor have visited her. We are trying to convince her to give the exam because she is a clever girl but we are not sure,” said Lohar.
A girl who has passed her tenth standard exams can apply for the course and pay around Rs. 3000 rupees a year as fees. With the age varying from 17-28 in the class with many married women also applying for the course, it is a mixed bag of students. For some, the fee is hard to manage but their drive to become a professional electrician keeps them going. Their teachers and principals also try to get as many companies as they can for campus placements. Lohar and her colleagues have connections in the industry and are surprised by the demand for girls in this sector. “There is a big demand for girls because of their sincerity. I know of companies who are ready to take most of the students at one go. There is a high demand but we can’t supply that many because of limited resources. I want to create more labs and space but it can be a tedious government process,” she said. Some of their earlier students from another electro mechanic course are working in BARC, BEST, MSEB, the railways, Doordarshan TV channel and even the Navy. “There is a lot of demand for skilled workers,” she said.
The students have their own plans with what they want to do with their newly obtained skills. “We want to use non-conventional energies to generate electricity. We are slowly learning about Hydro projects, Thermal and Wind powered projects. Once we have enough capital and support, we will bring these technologies to our villages. Before that, we want to work in companies and learn more,” they said.
In a report by TeamLease, their research stated that electricians in India earn more than engineers. If that truly is the case, these girls could be closer to achieving their goals than most.

Read more about it here.

Words: Preksha Malu 

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