Members of the Technoworld, an IT unit established by the Kudumbashree Mission in Kozhikode.
| Photo Credit: K. Ragesh
At heart, C.P. Jisha remains a homemaker, balancing the demands of domesticity with a thriving professional life. Every morning, after attending to her household chores, the 50-year-old walks towards a workday she once only dared to dream of.
Today, she is one of five women at the helm of Technoworld, an IT unit established by the Kudumbashree Mission in Kozhikode more than two decades ago. By January, it will become Kudumbashree’s first incubation centre for women in IT, online services, and digital field training in Kerala.
“I came here looking for a job, and now I am helping other women find their own careers. That makes everything worth it,” Ms. Jisha says.
Inaugurated on March 18, 2004, Technoworld is an IT unit that began with a loan of ₹3.5 lakh and has grown into a workspace with assets worth nearly ₹80 lakh. Operating from a building at the Civil Station in Kozhikode, the unit started with data entry work for the Regional Transport Office when government offices were slowly transitioning to computers.
From just 10 computers and a printer, the unit has grown to house over 50 computers and other improved facilities. The initiative is run by K. Vijaya (team leader), N.P. Sabira (secretary), K. Divya, Jisha, and A. Beena. What started with 10 members eventually narrowed down to this core group of five, who chose to stay on through financial uncertainty and changing working conditions.
The centre trains women who want to enter the digital services sector, guiding them on how to start similar units, manage workflows, and master basic software tools and data entry.
According to P.C. Kavitha, district mission coordinator for Kudumbashree Kozhikode, the success of Technoworld lies in how the women utilised the support they received. “Kudumbashree provides the same support to everyone. How carefully and fully they used the opportunity given to them makes the difference,” she says.
The team’s journey has been shaped by unity and consistent support. “We stood together through everything. That is the reason we are here today,” Ms. Vijaya says, recalling the early days. “In 2004, a ₹3.5-lakh loan felt like a huge amount. We were worried about whether we could repay it. But we chose to work while still taking care of our families, and we survived the hustle.”
Sabira, a resident of Kallayi, says the infrastructure for the incubation centre is ready in every sense. “Now we are waiting for those women with dreams to come in,” she says.
The centre will welcome women aged 18 and above, expecting a stream of young students, homemakers, and those who want to return to work later in life. “There were days we stayed late in the office whenever we had a tight deadline, mostly for data entry work. The five of us have become a safe haven for each other,” she says.
Over the years, Technoworld has handled a wide range of digital work for government offices, including services at motor vehicle offices, hospital kiosks handling birth and death registrations, and the Kozhikode Corporation office. One of the largest assignments the unit undertook was the 2011 Socio-Economic and Caste Census, which required extensive data work. The unit also prepared voters’ lists for the Kozhikode Corporation and 38 panchayat elections in 2005. Besides this, the unit has trained around 250 people under various Central and State government schemes and has employed over 2,500 individuals to date, with 72 people currently working across different assignments.
Published – December 27, 2025 07:20 pm IST
