350 Indian women's lifestyle will be upgraded

2/27/2011 — Malaysian Nanban
One of the social service programmes introduced by the East Coast Economic Region (ECER) is their skills training programme, which is offered free-of-charge.
About 300 Indian women have grabbed this opportunity to upgrade their lifestyles. All of them hail from Bentong, Pahang, and they are taking up part-time jobs via this skill training initiative.
According to PKSM, the extra income has greatly helped the women, who previously depended only on their monthly salary. This has helped upgrade their middle-class lifestyle to a better one.
PKSM has extended considerable help to ECER in making this programme a success in Pahang, especially for Indian women.
The ECER program, which will commence on May 2011, offers 10 different types of skill training programs. They cover areas like bridal affairs, tailoring, cake baking, handphone and computer repairing, tuition training, front desk training, 1Malaysia cooking, handphone programming and hotel management.
These programs with a duration of eight months offer big opportunities to the Indian women. For example, many women will bake cakes at home as a part-time job on weekends.
Some women even go to their customers’ houses for bridal arrangement. Women who have permanent jobs are making extra income by taking up part-time jobs. Housewives are also capable of making good money.
Last year, Alagamma earned about RM2,863 by baking cakes and cookies during the fasting month and Deepavalli. She could earn as much as RM4,600 during festivals.
Mala, who went for bridal skills training, is earning a minimum RM800 per month. During wedding seasons, she would earn around RM1,300 on each occasion.
Just like these two participants, 300 Indian women who have attended the skill training programme are able to upgrade their lifestyle step-by-step.
600 women of difference races, with most of them being Indian women, have taken part in this programme, which is arranged by the PKSM.
Following this achievement by ECER, PKSM will be continuing their efforts to encourage more women to achieve success in the district of Bentong.