The Footwear Design and Development Centre (FDDC), an initiative to train and employ unskilled workers in footwear making, is all set to launch an exclusive footwear stitching unit for women at Kolathara on Friday.
The Minister for Social Welfare and Panchayat M.K. Muneer will inaugurate the unit, which is envisioned as a step at empowering women by providing them self-employment.
The unit is being funded by footwear raw material manufacturers Huntsman International, the representatives of which had evaluated the performance of the FDDC units. Over the past six years, the FDDC has in association with the Kudumbahsree Dsitrict mission trained 1,048 individuals in Cheruvannur, Nallalam, Panangad and Feroke in various skills related to footwear manufacturing.
Around 410 women, trained by the FDDC, are running small footwear units of their own and another 250 are employed in larger firms, a release from the centre says.
