While newspaper headlines reported the city's hottest April day for 51 years - 43.5 degrees Celsius - Jagwati was packing jewellery for our Autumn 2009 range and pleased to be in the relative cool of Tara's building.
"You see, we spend some hours here and it is like our home," she said. "Nobody is big or small here. We laugh together, we lunch together. At our place it is very dirty. There are mosquitoes and flies and it is unhygienic and very hot, so in that way it is better here. It is clean here."
For Jagwati and some of the other women at Tara, "our place" is Indira Camp, a makeshift community which sprung up after the slums were demolished.
Jagwati's youngest daughter, Kamlesh, is among the local children benefiting from after-school tuition provided by Tara in the camp – and Tara also helped Jagwati through adult education classes.
"I never got the opportunity to go to school in my childhood," Jagwati said. "I studied at Tara's education centre and if I have some knowledge I get it from Tara.
"At least I am empowered and I am content because we are more aware about what is bad and what is good. Now I want my children also to grow and become empowered."
About Tara Projects
Tara is one of Traidcraft's largest supplier of crafts, and has been supplying us for over twenty years. Based in Delhi they aim to provide disadvantaged groups with income-generation opportunities. Tara also funds a number of non-formal schools and vocational training centres, along with several adult literacy centres, enabling many to access education who would otherwise be unable to do so. Tara has spearheaded campaigns against bonded labour, child labour, illiteracy, unfair trade practices and for ecological, environmental and female educational issues.
There are many training opportunities available to Tara workers, from computer literacy to quality training or tailoring and design workshops.
Many of the women who work at Tara were previously confined to their homes, believing that this was all that was possible for them.
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