Edition 12

Every year Aambra foundation celebrates the unity, power, zeal and dignity of womanhood with the SheSpeaks Editions commemorating International Women’s Day.

This year also, the SheSpeaks Edition 12 began with the national anthem which marked the commencement of the event. All the esteemed speakers and guest attendees gathered around the podium to show respect, this was followed by the lamp lighting ceremony by the Guests of Honour which denoted the auspiciousness of the ceremony as a tribute to Goddess Saraswati and to send out a message of spreading light by defeating the darkness of the world.

Ms. Vinita Bakshi, the Founder of Aambra Foundation officiated the event by addressing the esteemed panelists and guests in the audience and welcomed all in the celebration of International Women’s Day. She talked about why it is important to support each other in collateral growth and empowerment and how women have seen the times of being downtrodden, treated like no better than nothing, and how that has changed so much over the years. She highlighted that “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” should become more than a government initiative and be ingrained in the consciousness of the Indian Society as it has the potentiality to transform the productivity of the nation. She mentioned how Switzerland being a rich country and Burkina Faso being a poor country has similar gender ratios due to their attitude towards birth as they celebrate the joy of birth rather than gender. Collectively we can all help create an inclusive world. She asserted how safety and hygiene is of utmost importance for females and called attention to how the Hon’ble Indian Prime Minister was successful in creating awareness and facilitating women’s growth across the country.

In her Founder’s address Ms Bakshi also mentioned that amidst the challenges that were experienced globally, women in particular bore the brunt of tensions imposed by lockdowns, violence, homelessness or lopsided share of responsibilities. “The sociology of lockdown’s impact on women will be studied for the decades to come and if social awareness, policy frameworks, support systems and legislations can change then something good can emerge.

Additionally, she highlighted that even with the Foundation’s Toll-Free Helpline, women’s issues in the national capital of India need more focus, planning and strategy for the future.

She recalled the sad indictment of our society and how according to Govt. of India statistics state that a rape occurs every 15 minutes somewhere in India. She quoted two recent incidents which stood out (1) a child molester acquitted by the court because there was no skin contact; (2) a man accused of rape was asked by one of the judiciaries if he was willing to marry the victim.

She further asserted that patriarchy is an ever-present condition in all societies in the world but no child in other societies is taught “Matri Devo Bhava; Pintru Acharya; Atithi Devo Bhava”. Towards the end of the speech, Ms. Bakshi asked all to take a pledge to rise to the challenge of transformation by vowing to respect women in the family as well as all the others outside, eg. each and every neighbor, colleague, etc.

The event then proceeded with the inaugural address by Dr. Kirit Solanki (Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Government of India), a doctor turned politician, who talked about how different women in today’s society are than what they used to be in the earlier generations and what all the government is doing for the upliftment of the women gender and various projects like Ujjwala Vikas Yojana and Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao Yojana.

He highlighted the ground reality of women where they experience atrocity against them has become a conventional practice in India.

Further, he mentioned a childhood experience as an example and said that he had vivid memories of his mother cooking a meal in the fireplace which is potentially very dangerous for the individual because of the smoke, Dr. Solanki then applauds the Indian Prime Minister’s role in making LPG cylinders accessible to families across India. He talked about the voting rights of women and how women are often typecast as being “Aabla Nari” when in reality women are the most capable and resilient human beings in the truest form. He concluded his talk by saying “Until and unless we start recognizing women’s strengths and contribution to our society, we will not move towards any progress”.

Following Dr. Solanki was Ms. Sunita Duggal (Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Government of India), who started her talk by agreeing with Dr. Solaki’s view on “Abla Nari”. She said that now is the time for women to lead and excel in their respective fields, she further addressed the audience on how capable women are and what heights they are achieving, from flying an aircraft to climbing up on Mount Everest, they are doing it all. She also highlighted the importance of having a concrete identity to be able to empower oneself. She said women have reached and excelled in all platforms and referred to March 2020 mission which was supervised by Ms. Swati Mohan in terms of guidance and control. She said that women are experts in multi-tasking, not only she is capable of doing household chores but also, she justifies her professional life. She further refers to the image of Durga with multiple hands denoting the multi-tasking characteristic of women. She additionally praises Hon’ble Prime Minister’s initiatives for bringing forth attention to women’s hygiene and making sanitary napkins accessible at the lowest cost. She congratulates all women on International Women’s Day and instills courage by reminding everyone that as we move towards advancement, we may also face quite many challenges in the way and we all must be prepared responsibly for the same.

Following Ms. Duggal was Dr. Aruna Abhey Oswal (Chairperson Abhey Oswal Group, Aruna Abhey Oswal Trust), who talked about how she worked for the upliftment of women from all parts of the world, from Chicago to Africa. She also addressed what all we can do to do our part in empowering women. She said how one woman individually can impact and empower 10 others who would go on to do the same to 100 more and this way we will one day have a world filled with empowered women. She believes every woman has a story and there is a need for the story to be heard by everyone. She concluded by saying “Pages of yesterday cannot be revised, but pages of today and tomorrow are blank so hold a pen and make it an inspiring story because remember always that today’s beautiful story becomes history tomorrow and we all can do it.”

After the inaugural speech, the first panel discussion on “Cyber Threats and Security Pitfalls for women” began with Ms. Swati Rangachari (Vice President & Country Leader, Public Affairs, UnitedHealthGroup)’s brief introduction to the topic. She said how the internet has become a great powerful tool for people and how we gain a lot of value both in terms of personal and professional growth. She also included the downside which are the different pitfalls that women face and experience online.

Dr. Archana Gulati (IP&TAFS, Joint Secretary, Niti Aayog), spoke about why digital inclusion and upliftment is crucial for women of the world, also stated some shocking statistics like “women, as compared to men, are 28% behind in owning a mobile phone and fully 54% as compared to men do not use the Internet.”

She also talked about the advantages as well as the disadvantages of using the internet. She further spoke about her role in digital inclusion projects by the government. She highlighted the issue of women often facing online harassment in form of hate speech, stalking, abuse etc. which causes tremendous mental suffering and emotional distress

Following this, H.E. Ms. Grace (High Commissioner, Uganda High Commission) started by pointing out how girls and women are the first center of activism and talked about how women are perceived in her culture in Uganda, her efforts to reduce the gap, and her ultimate goal of removing that gap. She talked about how the girls are often discouraged from attending schools because they are conditioned to get married as soon as they reach puberty. She further discussed the role of her father and how her father’s courage to fight against the stereotypes of society to educate his daughters always motivated her to excel and work further in the field of women empowerment. She also congratulated all men who took part in and facilitated the growth of women.

She also highlighted how she realized the macro essence of women’s issues at a very later stage and all because of the role of technology which bought countries and communities together.

Then, Mr. Puneet Chawla (Chairman & Managing Director, Railtel), talked about why different social media platforms and other internet-based browsing is so addicting and why it is difficult to resist, and what could be done to tackle the problem of cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and the effect of the pandemic in enhancing these and how various platforms are running programs to cyber educate people and how their company is in the process of making the society a safer place for women by installing panic buttons at various spots like rail coaches and every railway platform so that our women are safer.

Following this was Mr. P Balaji (Chief Regulatory & Corporate Affairs Officer, Vodafone Idea Ltd.)’s remarks, where he talked about how his company is educating hundreds and thousands of women across India, especially targeting rural India, what is even more empowering is that it then these women who are taking the program further and educating other women. He also shared how he has been surrounded by very empowered women in his family which has revolutionized his view and outlook.

The second panel discussion began by Mr. Raimund Magis (DCM, EU Delegation to India & Bhutan) who said that International Women’s day was not always driven by the quest for right that might have been the basis for it but it was much more the necessity to have women in the heart of our society and economy which is the basis of progress. He highlighted that women have moved from home confinement to the public to showcase what important contribution they make to the society. Since then, women have come a long way as they have become professors, engineers, running big companies and governments, travelled to space which points that women have actually come a long way to everything. But it’s not a steady progress but something that was coming in waves, many occasions of push backs because we don’t have affirmative action in many countries or the 50-50 ratio. During COVID, many areas were amplified like using new technologies, with the new way of working (WFH). However, some of the downsides were also reported during WFH, in terms of challenges like violence at home, drowning in multiple tasks, not getting appropriate support from husband, employer or government etc. which is a troublesome time for them, yet trying to do their task with their best capabilities.

He thinks that the long term impact of covid still needs to be analysed. According to him, “to address these areas, we need to have enhanced action and flexibility from government and employers, we need to recognize the importance of WFH and provide appropriate support for men and women to WFH. From EU side, we do have important initiatives led by women in our political leadership including the Gender Action Plan which is not only a pledge but a political decision not only of EU but all the EU member states that at least 85% of all our expenses informed policy matters will be tied to empowering women and to address gender imbalance issue. This way we can have nice discourses and this in concrete terms means as far as EU and India relations are concerned, gender issues take a very important role.”

Mrs. Sadhana Shankar (Chief Income Tax Commissioner, Government of India) said she didn’t have the experience of working from home as they were in office. And she adds that the work has increased exponentially after the lockdown. It has become much more burdensome combining the professional work and household chores. Women and girls have traditionally been the caregiver, so apart from caregiving they had home, family, housework and office work. So, a lot of work increased for them. Also, she highlighted the McKinsey report which says that Women have lost more jobs than men during the pandemic. Women form 39% of the workforce around the world and 54% job loss they faced during COVID. Also, unpaid work increased tremendously for them. While working from home, women are working more but the job loss in the professional sector was much more. When the workload comes to the husband and wife, often the wife is expected to give up her professional work in favour of house responsibility most of the time. Major outshoots of the pandemic are the huge job loss faced by women and rise of domestic violence. And the third thing is the huge gender digital divide. Around 40 million girls stopped education due to lack of digital learning, so that counts as a huge drop out of girls from the education sector.

Subsequently, Mr. Abhishek Singh (President & CEO, NeGD

MeitY, Government of India) said that Work from Home has been stressful for women but the positive side is that the children have received the care from the caregivers much effectively. The women were burdened with a lot of work like taking care of children and alongside their office work which could come in at any point. Earlier, if the child is not well or elderly member who needed care, women were asked to take leave. And in this case, since they had the option of working from home, they could afford to take care of the child and were also able to attend to work, which was a plus sign. But, while Work From Home has certain advantages like reduction of commute time, reduces pollution, allows people to stay where they are, saves rent, allows women to put in more hours while taking care of family, but the stress it causes, we must find ways to relieve it too.

According to him, we need to realize that to make the pandemic and work from home easier, we have to look at ways to make it easier, looking at the positive side and looking at the challenges that are there and only then we can adopt the new normal. And the lessons of Work From Home is that yes, there are benefits and we need to attend to that and look that the stress related factors are taken care of and that way it will be beneficial not only for women but for men also.

Following this, Ms. Manjari said she was lucky to have women empowerment at her home as she was given the appropriate focus. Initial part of work from home was rather difficult not because of the household pressure but the fact that one is trying to manage both sides in a balanced way. It was a bit of a time lag to get accustomed to that habit but the organization she is working with, gave its employees enough benefits to ensure that women in the organization should adapt easily. Men were also feeling stressed as they were also given a part of house work to do so we had both men and women had to deal with the stressful times. But her organization gave enough support and privilege to women to cope with stressful situations through flexible timings. She feels that problems and advancement are part of the spectrum. And we have to adjust and move on. So, we bring ourselves to the organization in a truly human way which is our body, mind, heart and soul. So we know that we have to keep our body fit and happening, the mind has to be creative, but when it comes to heart, it is the central belonging which is touched more by the COVID times and the soul being the sense of purpose. So, the only thing/quadrant we had to take care of was heart, and we got many people together through telecom which was a very beautiful way through broadband, video calls happening that we remain connected. Communication is created verbally as we listen to the other person say verbally, you can hear words, tone and the body language which is very important so the video call was one way of having assured that we remain connected as a family in terms of our professional life. WFH has been difficult but the fact that being supported by both the personal and professional side made it a cakewalk.

Ms. Vinita Bakshi moderator of the panel discussion summarized the discussion with her enlightening views. She rightly said that it will take long years to study the effect of pandemic on the sociology of women and on the other aspects. Some good might have come as humans are resilient as we have controlled so much on the planet. She also added that we have to take a hybrid approach for the future and re-affirmative action from the government needs to be taken.

The final panel session on “Financial Inclusion of Women in COVID era & beyond” began with Ms. Bhuvana Ravi (Managing Director, Abhay Capital Services Pvt. Ltd.), the moderator asking question about banking, finance and literacy to Mr. Sudeep Luthra (Head HR, Orange Business Services). Mr. Luthra explained how financial independence remains a myth until given equal opportunities across all genders and spaces. When literacy rate is so wildly unequal between men and women, we are yet to come to spaces of growth in career, financial inclusion, thriving in ambitions, passions etc.

Mr. Luthra further emphasized on the  management of knowledge, skill upgradation or developing skills for vocational training for women. Polishing the existing skills that women have will empower them to create a serene livelihood for lifetime. And all this enables them to be skilled and create a polished version of themselves.

Ms. Vinita Bakshi added that basic education, literacy opportunities are so poor, and the idea of financial autonomy is still a dream. She brought to knowledge how when the girl starts her menstrual cycle she is forbidden from going to school, because school does not have basic sanitation facilities, the rural area do not have toilets available in the school area. So the lack of infrastructural facilities increases the dropout rate in girls in school.

Ms. Bhuvana Ravi spoke about how we realized the importance of being self-sufficient during the time of pandemic, since everybody had to do their duties on their own nobody could help others in a affable way. Women have been empowered with power of multitasking, but flaws point out it hasn’t been used to shape her efficiency but has been used so that efficiency of others in the family remain intact. Irrespective of her position in the corporate world she has to manage and work her duties at home. She refers to an example – the key of the ‘Tijori’ which has always been handled by a woman in a household, but why?

How is financial law, bank law or savings accounts different and women are obligated to not offer their part of expertise when legal matters are involved? But if can use this skill and shape it in proper vocational training, with needed scaffolding it might enable her to achieve those vivid heights in career, house and for self-growth.

Continuing the idea of key giving to the bahurani of the house, Ms. Vinita Bakshi pointed out how there is no culture in any other part of the world that welcomes the new member as Bahurani and gives her the key of the Tijori.

And what disappoints her is the respect not being given equally to her state of mind, her happiness as these new labels would suggest.

Ms. Vinita Bakshi then asked, why are there so many obligations given to her gender? Why is supposed to have a smile on her face always, where she is not in control of her own moments but to hold the spoke she is asked to wear a plastic smile always. A person is said to be settled when they have completed few basic necessities of life. Like having shelter, food, clothes, security and love.

Why are women confined to only a few typical industries and areas of work?

Following this, Ms. Deepshikha Sharma (IRS) placed emphasis on the horizon that is widening and we have to take the best of what we have particularly because we are a developing country. While the resolution that puts an end to the daily struggles, daily stress, and daily issues was still a distant dream, why not take these obstacles as challenges and find solution and ask for a relationship of equals at home and at work.

The digital resources available has made our work easy in the times of pandemic, how e-files could be distributed through internet and nobody’s work came to a halt because the offices were closed when the whole nation went under lockdown.

Ms. Vinita Bakshi stressed on how education and literacy in two things are yet to be given firmly to women. One in legal and law related matters and the other in banking matters, why do women have to be dependent on the male member of the family to take care of legal and bank work and asked how do they foresee future about and around this.

Mr. Sudeep Luthra summarized the context with a phrase, “A bird cannot fly with one wing clip’, where the wings are men and women, and let’s equally empower both the wings for making meaningful contributions to the society for easy flight.”

Ms. Deepshikha Sharma then drew inferences from her life experiences during the times of pandemic that how people were constantly on the go to upgrade and up skill there constant set of skills, and how online platform was easily accustomed by all in skill polishing leading to a no halt.

The discussion finally ended with Vinita Bakshi heartily thanking all the panellists for their time and contribution in the discussion.