{"id":4758,"date":"2012-03-08T20:03:32","date_gmt":"2012-03-08T14:33:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/?p=4758"},"modified":"2015-01-13T11:56:35","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T06:26:35","slug":"seven-women-plumbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/2012\/4758\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven women plumbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven women, in grey working coats worn over their sarees, moving among others during lunch time in the big hall of the ashram have drawn the attention of many. \u201cWho are they, those smiling women? They seem to be very much at home here.\u201d Ashram people ask each other. Western residents seem to have known them already. They say, \u201cThey are the first batch of women plumbers, trained in the University.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Amrita University has a course in which artisans are taught trades such as plumbing through computer technology. These women have successfully completed three month training, and are now apprentices. The buildings under construction and repairs in the old flats here provide ample training opportunities.<\/p>\n

The seven women in the age group of 31 to 49 years, all from nearby Karunagapally area, members of AmritaSREE group (Amrita, Self Reliance Education and Employment<\/a>) chose to undergo this novel training; like in all AmritaSREE trainings, they would also be provided with job opportunities.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

All of them have gone to school till 8th std, some went to college but failed to get a degree. All are married, with children; some of their children have completed graduation. One of them, Usha, has a grandchild too.<\/p>\n

On the International Women\u2019s day I went to meet them at their working places.<\/p>\n

One of them said she is now enthusiastic to learn moped riding; she could come for work in 20 minutes instead of changing 3 buses in one and half hours. This confidence came to her because she was now \u2018computer literate’.<\/p>\n

Another observed how, thanks to gadgets like grinders and washing machines, women don\u2019t have any hard work to do at homes. Now she feels proud her hand is not delicate like before, but strong and rough. She showed me her palm. \u201cHowever, plumbing is not very \u2018hard manual\u2019 labour,\u201c she quickly added. \u201cTransporting material and chipping are tough. It is hard to chip cement; that is like chipping stone. Rest is all OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sometimes when there is no elevator, carrying porcelain sinks up to top floors etc would make it hard, especially in hot summer; but that\u2019s not a big thing, another explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been men plumbers on the site before. How do you see yourself in relation to them?\u201d I asked.
\nOne of them said, \u201cWe know more things than we need to for a job, since we learnt it systematically.\u201d
\nAnother said, \u201cSometimes they are wonderstruck when they hear us referring to things by their names and by specifications…!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

No job is menial. Amma trains Her children to have the readiness to do any work, starting from toilet cleaning. Now with computerised training Amma has made plumbing a highly dignified profession.
\nI remember that Amma was very happy when they came to Her with their certificates. She exclaimed \u201cHere is My army of women plumbers!\u201d
\n– Sandhya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Seven women, in grey working coats worn over their sarees, moving among others during lunch time in the big hall of the ashram have drawn the attention of many. \u201cWho are they, those smiling women? They seem to be very much at home here.\u201d Ashram people ask each other. Western residents seem to have known […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,506],"tags":[151],"class_list":["post-4758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ashram-diary","category-interesting","tag-womens-day"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/e.amritapuri.org\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}