How did skilled wives embark on the road to escaping poverty and becoming prosperous?
On this day, Wang Yali and her sister-in-law, as usual, rode their electric tricycle to the courtyard of the garment company they had signed a contract with, to deliver goods, inspect the goods, collect payment, and pick up materials.
Wang Yali is from Dawangzhuang Village, Tangzhuang Township, Shangshui County, Henan. After graduating from junior high school, she once went out to work, but later, because she had elderly people and children at home to care for, she returned to the village and stayed there. Hearing that the county had organized the "Skilled Wives Project," she signed up early to participate in training. Afterward, she set up two sewing machines at home, and every day after finishing the housework, she and her sister-in-law turned piece after piece of garment accessories into finished products.
"Working at my doorstep, paid by the piece, I can earn 2,000 yuan a month." Wang Yali said, "I welcome poverty alleviation like this."
In Shangshui County, 90% of the population is agricultural, and there are many left-behind women. Taking solving the employment problem of surplus labor left behind at home as a breakthrough, the county implemented the "Skilled Wives Project," guiding women from scattered work to industry-based, industrialized, and large-scale operations, and explored a path of targeted industrial poverty alleviation represented by fishing net weaving and the garment and apparel industry.
Walking into Pingdian Township, the "Hometown of Fishing Nets," one sees fishing nets piled up on both sides of the road. In a fishing net processing yard, pairs of skillful hands move like flowing water, threading back and forth between net frames and net twine, and on the work boards, fishing nets gradually take shape.
"The husband earns alone and the whole family spends. Even if we skimp more, life is still tight." Qu Yanling, 43, of Qilou Village, did not stop the work in her hands. "Now I can weave 20 fishing nets a day, and in a month I can earn about 2,500 yuan."
Wei Hong of the Publicity Department of the Shangshui County Party Committee told reporters, "Although making one fishing net involves more than 10 processes, each process is not very labor-intensive. They are basically relatively light manual tasks, and women and the elderly are fully capable of doing them."
"Our fishing net styles and specifications have developed to more than 20 kinds, with wholesale prices generally 10 to 30 yuan per net. Even calculated at an average price of 15 yuan, the monthly output value is more than 800,000 yuan, and calculated at 10 months a year, the total annual output value is more than 8 million yuan." A person in charge of a processing yard introduced that the fishing nets are mainly sold to 6 provinces including Hunan, Zhejiang, and Anhui.
Fishing net weaving in Pingdian Township has a history of nearly 10 years. In recent years, more than 10 million fishing nets of various types have been sold across the country each year, and more than 8,000 women and elderly people in the township have created an output value of more than 160 million yuan without leaving their homes.
At the "Skilled Wives Project" training base in Dawangzhuang Village, Tangzhuang Township, Aunt Lou Feng, over 60 years old, together with six sisters-in-law, practiced movements on sewing machines.
Aunt Lou Feng, who participated in "Skilled Wives" training back in 2013, has now become a "coach" at the training base. "I was the first in the village to take work from the factory. The sisters-in-law in my family are all people who cannot sit idle. Seeing me doing it, they all followed and started doing it too."
The story of six sisters-in-law going to "school" together quickly spread through the nearby villages. Under their influence, the skilled wives in the village all took action.
Zhao Sanni, a poor household in the same village, has been having a hard time these years. Her husband has lumbar disc herniation and cannot do heavy work, her son has necrosis of the femoral heads in both legs, her daughter-in-law left, and there is still a little grandson to care for. Sanni has become the pillar of the family.
"Doing factory work each month brings in more than 2,000 yuan, and in dry weather I help others spray pesticides, earning two or three hundred a day." Zhao Sanni said.
Based on rural realities, the Shangshui County government, relying on its human resource advantages, explored and implemented a processing and operating model of "company + orders + designated points + farming households," carried out processing with supplied materials and order-based production, and expanded the "Skilled Wives Project" to more than 20 fields including garments and apparel, knitting and textiles, non-woven fabric products, and fishing net weaving.
"The demand for industrial transfer, combined with the large number of rural women laborers in a state of 'helplessness, boredom, and hopelessness,' gave rise to the 'Skilled Wives Project.'" said Ma Weidong, secretary of the Shangshui County Party Committee.
At present, the number of "skilled wives" in Shangshui County has reached 100,000, with per capita annual income of about 20,000 yuan; 60% of poor villages have carried out construction of the "Skilled Wives Project," and nearly 30,000 people have escaped poverty.
"Using the 'Skilled Wives Project' as a carrier, Shangshui County implements targeted industrial poverty alleviation, which both solves the 'three left-behind' problems and promotes increases in farmers' incomes, opening a new path suited to rural realities." said Xu Guang, secretary of the Zhoukou Municipal Party Committee.