Ashwini Bhagirath from Vasai has been deftly manoeuvring her hands, juxtaposing the white against the saffron and green, as she puts together the Indian national flag on her sewing machine. Bhagirath along with 400 other women are busy completing a gigantic order of sewing 75,000 tirangas allocated to them by the Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC). More than half of the order has already reached the corporation in just about 20 days. Prior to that, most of these women had no knowledge of how to put the flag, or their lives together. This was before NGO Samrudhi Mahila Bachat Gat, run by fashion designer Kiran Badhe, came into their lives. 

Now Bhagirath, 41, earns Rs 15,000 monthly. While she is the wife of a policeman, a majority of the others associated with the NGO—around 600 women—are single mothers and widows. Many others suffer at the hands of their husbands who waste their earnings on alcohol. Badhe has, however, helped them all become self-reliant in Vasai Taluka. She has trained them to work as autorickshaw drivers, delivery women and tailors to make ends meet.