Lucknow: Vandana Singh suffered from extreme emotional pain when her father died of a brain haemorrhage in the year 2017. She has four sisters and two brothers and all of them are married. After her father’s death, Vandana did not marry because she felt responsible to run the household in his absence. 

Vandana has a master’s degree in Hindi and MSW. Along with her studies, she is also involved in social work. 

Creative pursuit

Vandana is aware about the number of flowers that are collected at temples after worshipping. They are huge in numbers and often go to waste. She makes use of these wilted flowers instead of plucking fresh ones from the nurseries. She received her training from CIMAP. She visits the temples at night along with her team and transfers huge boxes of these flowers to her shop. 

 She separates petals from the flowers and grinds them in mixers to make scented incense sticks from them. Through this work, she has been able to give employment to many women.

Chikankari and Zardozi

Vandana trains women in Zardozi and Chikankari works. Sugarcane vinegar, phenyl toilet cleaners, hand wash, and toiletry items are also produced at her factories. The work is done at the ground level, with the primary aim of empowering women. 

Working with women prisoners

Vandana receives her funds from NABARD, which she utilizes to train women prisoners to become independent and find a new purpose in their life. Working with the jail authorities is a difficult task, but she never gives up. 

She has also been making people aware about the transgender rights. 

Employment to 20000 people

It all started from being involved in social service programmes. Looking at her enthusiasm, Bhoomi Sudhar Nigam sent her to the village of Sandila for a social service project. Then, she was only a class 12 student. She tried to connect with women and understood their plight. She was a young girl of 18 and had no idea about how she must show these women the right path. 

The connection she had formed with the villagers inspired her to study social work for her master’s degree. 

So far, she has done a phenomenal job of providing employment to over 20,000 women. The funds received from NABARD help her extend her support to women from different villages.