Coimbatore-based retired professor empowers women with skill-based training programmes

Discover the empowering work of Saraswathy Eswaran at Ramasamy Chinnammal Trust, offering skill development and business opportunities for women.

The room is enveloped in the aroma of roasted millet flour. Women move about, doing prep work for thinai ladoos. Jaggery bubbles on a stove in a corner, its caramel scent filling the space. With skillful hands, another woman mixes the warm concoction, ghee, and the flour. Once it cools down, it is shaped into perfect spheres. There is a lot happening on the first floor of Ramasamy Chinnammal Trust’s office at Vadavalli.

Saraswathy Eswaran, a retired professor at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, who runs the Trust, oversees the women at work. We pop in a ladoo: it is crumbly and soft on the inside, tastes nutty and is fragrant of ghee and roasted nuts. Nearby, millet ice-cream is in the marking. We try a scoop: subtly sweet and light, it tastes different from traditional ice-creams. The millet adds a delicate nutty flavour and a grainy texture, which come together well with notes of vanilla.

Saraswathy started the Trust in 1997 in an effort to offer a platform for women from less-priviledged backgrounds to earn a living. “For a family to run smoothly, women who are part of it should be skilled,” she says, highlighting the vital roles women play at home and in society, and the need to uplift them. “They need to be recognised for their contribution,” she asserts.

Through the Trust, she provides skill-development and business opportunities for hundreds of women from villages in and around Coimbatore. They have trained over 2,800 women so far, out of which 40% have turned micro-level entrepreneurs. The projects are being funded by NABARD (National Bank For Agriculture And Rural Development), SIDBI (Small Industries Development Bank) and EDIA (Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India). The women are not only taught skills but are also instilled with a sense of pride and independence. Saraswathy believes that with motivation and training, women can realise their full potential.

The 78-year-old shows us around another unit nearby, where women are involved in making goat milk soap. The soap, that carries the scent of flowers, lathers well and leaves the skin feeling fresh. The women also make pickles, masala powders, instant millet mixes, millet biscuits, fruit concentrates, and thokkus. Saraswathy has empowered hundreds of women over the years, and the products they create are symbols of empowerment, resilience, and the power of a community coming together for a common goal.

Products made by the women are available at RS Puram Uzhavar Sandhai under the name Kovai Organic Producer Company. For details, call 9944799995.