Outlook Business correspondent Laveena Iyer moderates a panel on self empowerment with Payal Nath of Kadam India; Pankaja Munde, Minister of State for Women and Child Welfare; and Zarina Screwvala of Swades Foundation
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Music: Vodovoz Music Productions
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Read the stories of all the 17 women achievers profiled this year https://www.outlookbusiness.com/speci...
You can also find the edition on the Outlook Group app or buy a digital copy from Magzter
Download Outlook Group: http://app.outlookindia.com/
Digital copy: http://subscription.outlookindia.com/...
Music: Vodovoz Music Productions
#WomenEmpowerment #PanelDiscussion #Talk #WOW2017 #Business #OutlookBusiness #OutlookMagazine #OutlookGroup
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NewsTranscript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Well, Swami Vivekananda once said,
00:06 "There is no chance for the welfare of the world
00:10 "unless the condition of women is improved.
00:13 "It is not possible for a bird to fly on only one wing."
00:18 Women empowerment hence is an integral part
00:22 of our nation building,
00:24 and it's not any different with India.
00:27 To discuss and debate the state of women empowerment
00:31 in the country, I'd now like to invite on stage
00:35 Ms. Pankaja Munday, Minister for Rural Development,
00:38 Women and Child Development, Maharashtra.
00:41 (audience applauding)
00:44 Ms. Munday, an MBA graduate,
00:47 introduced several women-centric initiatives
00:50 that have enabled them to achieve sustainable livelihood.
00:54 Ma'am, please take a seat.
00:57 Our next panelist, Ms. Zarina Skruvala,
00:59 Managing Trustee of Swades Foundation.
01:03 (audience applauding)
01:05 Ms. Skruvala is an entrepreneur and philanthropist,
01:08 currently working with six blocks
01:10 across Srigat in Maharashtra.
01:13 Under her stewardship, Swades has emerged
01:16 as a unique philanthropic organization
01:19 that works on a build, operate, transfer model
01:23 to accomplish its goal.
01:24 Thank you very much for joining us.
01:27 Well, next up, I'd like to invite Ms. Payal Nath,
01:30 co-founder of Kolkata-based Kadam,
01:33 a voluntary organization
01:35 dedicated to the holistic development of rural crafts.
01:40 Payal has done her bit to empower the rural women of India
01:45 by training them to create utilitarian goods
01:48 out of organic materials
01:50 and creating a market for them in the city.
01:53 Moderating this discussion, ladies and gentlemen,
01:56 will be Ms. Lavina Iyer of Outlook Business.
02:00 (audience applauding)
02:03 (upbeat music)
02:06 - Hello.
02:18 Can you guys hear me?
02:19 Good? Okay.
02:25 So good evening, everybody.
02:27 Today, when we were asked to set up this panel
02:29 on women empowerment,
02:31 we decided let's not do the usual
02:33 gender disparity statistics
02:35 and let's do something a little more.
02:37 So instead, we focused on self-empowerment.
02:40 What can women do to uplift themselves?
02:43 Which is why we're calling this panel Rise Up.
02:46 And here we have on stage change makers
02:48 who have enabled several women across the country
02:51 to unleash their true potential.
02:53 I'd like to start with you, Ms. Munday.
02:56 You've introduced several women-centric initiatives,
02:59 be it Majhi Kanya Bhagashree,
03:01 be it Tejaswini, be it Skill Sakhi.
03:04 Could you share with the audience
03:05 any such stories of women
03:07 whose success, beneficiaries of women,
03:10 would reflect the meaning of women empowerment?
03:14 - Hello, everyone.
03:15 Please excuse me for my bad throat.
03:17 I am very happy to be part of, first of all, this program,
03:22 and I thank Outlook for this.
03:25 And I congratulate all these winners,
03:28 wow, women of the year.
03:30 I am here,
03:32 even I have my own story behind it.
03:36 But when I heard the story of Monika and Lataji,
03:40 I heard many stories,
03:43 maybe more struggle I have seen of women
03:48 being a minister also.
03:51 I feel I'm blessed to be born in a family
03:54 where my father, we all are daughters,
03:57 we are all three daughters,
03:58 so we never had that kind of atmosphere at home.
04:02 And even married in a family
04:03 where there was no gender bias issue.
04:07 But you know when sometimes
04:08 when you deal with these things,
04:11 you realize the lower strata of the society
04:15 accepts women leadership
04:18 as easily,
04:22 but the higher strata sometimes can be biased,
04:25 what is my experience about it.
04:27 So,
04:28 I have empowered many women,
04:32 because I personally had an agenda,
04:35 I always worked with, as my NGO,
04:37 then I came in politics.
04:39 So I always thought women should be
04:41 the financial strength of the family,
04:43 then only they will be respected.
04:46 Because why men are respected?
04:47 They don't have any extra power,
04:49 only because they earn.
04:51 And that fetch them respect
04:53 because family is dependent on them.
04:55 So when women start earning,
04:57 women start becoming financial strength of the family
05:00 or backbone of the family,
05:01 automatically that respect can be given to them.
05:04 Here we are not talking about disrespecting men,
05:06 we are talking about equality.
05:08 So I have observed many people,
05:11 I have observed people,
05:13 women who have been divorced,
05:15 who have been raped,
05:17 who have been trafficked,
05:19 and all these,
05:20 their,
05:21 they have,
05:22 you know, their rehabilitation has been done by our NGOs,
05:25 and also as a minister we have done that.
05:28 There is one story of my Umed Abhiyaan,
05:31 which we do in the rural areas,
05:32 where we make self-help groups of these women,
05:35 and we empower them,
05:37 we make village organization,
05:38 then we give them loans,
05:40 and they start their little work on that level,
05:44 and then we try to enhance their skills
05:46 to market their products.
05:48 So one girl came to me,
05:51 she was just 18 year old,
05:54 and already had four kids,
05:56 and she said,
05:57 "I lost my husband,
05:59 "and this is my story."
06:01 And actually I thought my empowerment
06:03 doesn't really stand in front of
06:05 kind of empowerment skills she has.
06:07 The girl who already has four kids and lost her husband,
06:10 and thrown out by her in-laws,
06:13 started her own business with this Abhiyaan,
06:16 and she first bought a auto rickshaw.
06:19 Then she gave it to her brother to drive,
06:23 and started earning little money,
06:24 then started saving that money.
06:26 Then she bought another auto rickshaw,
06:27 and now this girl has six auto rickshaws,
06:30 and she's an entrepreneur herself.
06:33 So there are many stories like this,
06:35 where people are fighting to go from under poverty line
06:40 to a sustainable financial level.
06:44 This is a story,
06:46 one of the story I can share with you,
06:48 because there is a time constraint.
06:50 So many women have been struggling
06:52 and trying to earn their livelihood
06:54 and support their family.
06:55 - Well more part of these women.
06:57 Speaking about the fighting spirit of women,
06:59 Zarina, let's move to Swades.
07:01 The very basis of your organization
07:03 has been empowering people.
07:05 Help me understand,
07:07 what is the kind of mindset that prevails
07:09 in the rural areas that you work with?
07:11 You know, are the men supportive?
07:13 How do the women find it to break these barriers
07:16 and step out?
07:17 - So you know, Lavina,
07:19 I mean, I'll tell you a story,
07:20 not about really economic empowerment,
07:22 but I'll tell you a story about a toilet.
07:25 So, I mean, even if you just take a toilet as a symbol
07:29 of something really sad,
07:31 that if a person in the family doesn't have a toilet.
07:35 So we have Swades,
07:36 but we decided that the community must always contribute
07:40 to their own development.
07:41 So we have a certain sum of money,
07:43 which varies dramatically from 500 rupee contribution
07:46 to 4,000 rupee contribution.
07:49 We could not convince the men to pay for the toilet
07:51 because they didn't want it.
07:53 But they didn't realize that their wives and their daughters,
07:56 once they came up a certain age,
07:59 went to the toilet at four in the morning in groups,
08:02 and then went again to the toilet
08:04 only at 11 in the night.
08:06 So that from four in the morning to 11 in the night,
08:09 they never went to the toilet
08:10 because they used to go into the fields.
08:11 And these men wouldn't give the 4,000 rupees
08:14 needed for a toilet,
08:15 which actually cost us 24,000 rupees,
08:18 which we would bear the rest.
08:19 So it's a slow and painful thing to see,
08:22 but it can be done.
08:23 And we built 18,000 toilets now with the contribution
08:26 from each and every household.
08:28 And I think I want to add
08:31 that really we're not against men.
08:33 It's not about that.
08:34 Not at all.
08:35 It's about equality.
08:37 It's about respect.
08:38 It's about the right for every human being to have a dream
08:42 and to be able to achieve it.
08:44 So you know, when we first started the Swades Foundation,
08:47 you can't hear me?
08:48 - Yes, just a little bit.
08:49 - Thank you.
08:50 - A little bit.
08:50 - From the mic?
08:52 Okay.
08:53 Sorry about that.
08:54 I asked my, we started UTV,
09:00 and then we sold UTV in 2012,
09:02 and we decided to give our money for the Swades Foundation,
09:05 our dream being to lift a million people out of poverty.
09:08 And the first thing I asked everybody,
09:10 because we went on this journey of discovery,
09:12 like one year we studied, what is poverty?
09:15 What is poverty?
09:18 We asked so many people.
09:19 I got so many different answers.
09:22 And then finally we decided,
09:24 and you have it in what you're saying over here,
09:28 is that poverty is the lack of the ability to dream.
09:33 It's a lack of ability to aspire for a future for yourself.
09:38 You can't even see it.
09:39 You don't have a dream.
09:41 And that to us is the poverty that we're trying to deal with.
09:45 And we come to women.
09:46 I'll tell you, we have started, we do many things.
09:49 I won't get into that.
09:51 But one of the things we do with 750 women in our community,
09:55 there's seven standard paths,
09:56 and then we made it fifth standard path.
09:58 So long as they can read basic Marathi,
10:01 they're all trained in primary health care,
10:03 and they go door to door and deliver primary health care.
10:07 And they've been doing this for three years
10:09 in 2000 villages of India.
10:11 And they have done amazing jobs.
10:14 They have saved lives.
10:15 And I'll tell you one thing,
10:17 they're all volunteers,
10:18 but we started by giving them 500 rupees.
10:21 And we told them we'll give it to them for two years.
10:25 Just, you won't believe it,
10:27 three months, four months ago,
10:29 one of the women came and said,
10:30 you know, ma'am, it's been four years or three,
10:33 it's been longer than you said you would pay us,
10:36 which is when we remember that we had said two years.
10:39 And 200 women, 270 women have told us
10:44 they do not want that 500 rupees a month anymore,
10:47 because they love what they do so much,
10:49 they're continuing to do it with no compensation at all.
10:53 And we were so touched.
10:55 And I mean, stories like that really change everything.
11:00 The other thing that we've realized is that
11:02 when you give money in the hands of a very poor woman,
11:08 something fundamental changes in that family,
11:12 as opposed to giving it in the hands of a man.
11:15 When you give money in the hands of women,
11:18 they spend it on different things.
11:20 Their children complete school,
11:23 their children are no longer malnourished.
11:26 And the other thing that we've realized,
11:27 which amazed me and delighted me, of course,
11:30 when I'm slightly feministic,
11:32 is that when you train women in farming,
11:35 the produce goes up by 20% to 30% of that
11:40 when you give it to the man.
11:41 (audience applauding)
11:42 And these are studies, so I was very surprised,
11:44 and then I read up about it,
11:45 and it's a study, after study has shown the same thing.
11:48 So give it to the women.
11:52 (audience applauding)
11:53 - That's very fascinating to note.
11:55 All three of you work particularly
11:58 with women in rural areas.
12:00 And a lot of us in this room can't even imagine
12:03 some of the hurdles that they go through.
12:06 Can we have some water, please?
12:07 - Can I have a hand mic?
12:08 Because this is not working out for me.
12:11 Thanks.
12:16 Put my other mic off.
12:17 (microphone thuds)
12:20 Sorry.
12:23 - No, no, that's all right.
12:24 So there are a lot of women, even here, right here.
12:26 It's a known fact that women professionals in general
12:29 face several hurdles.
12:31 We face several barriers.
12:32 It's a known fact that women account for only 4%
12:35 of CEOs and listed companies in the BSC.
12:37 So in a country where women are underrepresented
12:40 in leadership, Payal, I want you to tell me,
12:42 what is it that is holding us back?
12:46 - So many things.
12:48 So many things.
12:49 But you know, if you see our country,
12:52 if you say 100%, 68.8% lives in the villages.
12:56 And that's where our answer is.
12:59 So when you have every, out of 10 people,
13:02 seven people living in the villages,
13:04 and the rural, and our country,
13:08 you know, there's one statement
13:09 that I'd like to make before that.
13:10 I get a lot of interns from international universities
13:13 to work in our NGO.
13:15 So they made this comment after traveling
13:17 in our various villages where we work.
13:19 They said, "Here, we noticed that in your country,
13:22 in India, people are living from 12th century
13:25 up to 23rd century."
13:28 So, you know, and it's an amazing country
13:30 that we live in, right?
13:32 And then a majority of the population, unfortunately,
13:35 are not even in the 19th or 20th century.
13:38 So that answers most of your question.
13:40 I think so, because most of the people
13:42 are still in the rural belt, no?
13:43 And so women have to come up from there
13:46 to be able to, our statistics to go up.
13:48 - I agree.
13:49 Can I just add something here? - Sure, sure.
13:51 - You know, the problem is,
13:53 and I speak again from rural perspective,
13:56 is that the problem starts at birth.
13:59 And this is something, see, I love my country.
14:02 I am very proud of it.
14:03 And I work really hard to make it a better place.
14:06 But this is something I'm ashamed of.
14:08 If there's anything I'm ashamed of, it's this,
14:11 that when the girl is born,
14:12 she starts with a disadvantage.
14:15 She starts with less nourishment.
14:17 She starts with a less education than the boy.
14:20 Sometimes, somehow I can even understand the education,
14:23 but the nourishment kills me.
14:25 I can't even understand how a family can do that.
14:28 And from there, she has to take,
14:30 she has an inherent disadvantage when she is born.
14:33 So then how does she continue?
14:35 How does she bring herself out of this?
14:37 It's a huge, huge, insurmountable--
14:39 - If I may add to that, what we do in Kadam
14:42 is that we've created a model
14:44 wherein we built teams in the villages
14:47 with one woman, let's say, one man,
14:51 and let's say one man, and other communities,
14:54 the lower communities and higher communities.
14:56 So they all, we make teams like these.
14:58 And so each team is responsible to make a product
15:01 which will fetch a certain price in the market,
15:05 which will be equally distributed amongst all.
15:07 So it's the skill, not the gender, not the caste
15:10 or the community that you're coming from.
15:11 So that has helped.
15:13 That has helped a lot.
15:14 So we have like about 600 households,
15:17 but I say 600 households who are earning an income
15:20 of more than 10,000 a month now from nothing to here.
15:24 So yeah, so I mean, it is very rewarding
15:27 when you see that this sort of thing is possible,
15:30 but it's organic and it takes time.
15:32 It takes time.
15:33 - And also one thing, as she said,
15:35 there is a vast variety in our country.
15:39 So some people are living in 12th century,
15:41 some are living in 23rd.
15:43 But the rest which are not reached 19,
15:46 the men are also included in that, not only women.
15:48 I want to add to this that even men of deprived sector
15:53 are equally deprived.
15:55 So what you're talking about, toilets, recruitment,
15:58 everything is there for them also.
16:00 So women have to really run extra mile,
16:03 or have to burn extra calories to be in the, yeah.
16:07 - At the forefront.
16:09 - Shankar sir, I want to understand,
16:11 you know, these barriers that women face in particular,
16:14 are at times are some of these self-imposed,
16:17 the so-called glass ceiling of the traditional workplace.
16:20 Do you think we limit ourselves somewhere?
16:25 Sorry?
16:26 - I didn't get your question actually.
16:27 - What I mean to say is somewhere do women have this guilt
16:30 of, oh, I have to manage my family,
16:32 how would I be looked at?
16:34 Or women are considered to not have executive capabilities,
16:38 may be I might not be able to live up
16:40 as much as my male counterparts.
16:41 - It depends on the environment they are brought up in,
16:44 it depends on the environment they're working in,
16:46 and it depends on the inner environment of themselves also.
16:50 If you're confident enough, whatever it is,
16:53 you can fight it.
16:54 It is your own confidence, and confidence gets built up
16:58 with your upbringing mostly.
17:00 Because I always say, all men,
17:04 forget about them for a while.
17:06 All those mothers, please make your daughters confident.
17:09 They start at the home.
17:10 That's what I said, the lower status
17:12 accepts easily at times, but higher ones.
17:15 If you talk about female feticide,
17:17 it happens in the economically,
17:19 yeah, better people, economically stable people.
17:23 So that attitude of social issues and all this,
17:27 more into a higher middle class and all these families.
17:30 So their upbringing is the first thing.
17:33 Their confidence is second thing,
17:34 which they get eventually in their primitive years,
17:38 in the schooling and all.
17:39 So that's very important, but there is always a guilt.
17:42 Even I have a guilt, that my son is studying,
17:45 he's in 10th, and I'm here sitting,
17:46 I have to go back, rush, see his homework.
17:48 I will have that guilt.
17:50 Maybe, you know, that women have some genetic problems.
17:54 I think.
17:55 So they are very perfect.
17:56 They want to do everything at the same time.
17:58 Men are not.
17:59 My husband is traveling US, he's relaxing,
18:01 he's not bothered about son studies, but I am.
18:03 So he always says it's X-linked problems,
18:06 so Y chromosome doesn't have that.
18:08 So we are perfect.
18:10 We want to do everything nicely.
18:12 We want to serve every sector.
18:14 (speaking in foreign language)
18:18 We will take care of even the bai who's working with us.
18:22 We understand the facial expressions also.
18:24 (audience applauding)
18:26 I know when my bai is not happy.
18:29 I am a minister, I have no time.
18:30 I get up, go, come back home, sleep.
18:32 So I just feel my bai's mood is not good.
18:35 That is a genetic problem we have.
18:36 I feel so we want to deliver at every level we work.
18:41 - Serena, I want to understand from you,
18:42 what would be your advice to women
18:44 who have this mental debate?
18:45 Am I doing right by my career?
18:46 Am I doing right by my family?
18:48 - See, I think I totally agree.
18:52 I think we all want to be superwoman.
18:55 And we let men be men, but we want to be superwomen.
19:00 And this is the problem.
19:01 I think it's fine to be superwoman,
19:03 but if it creates stress, don't do it.
19:06 I think I was only able to succeed,
19:09 my mom's right here, sitting here.
19:12 And because I had a very strong family
19:15 who backed everything I did,
19:17 and whenever I needed help, I asked.
19:20 I not only asked my family for help,
19:22 I asked my coworkers for help.
19:23 If I had family problems, I asked my coworkers for help.
19:26 Ask for help.
19:28 There's no need to be superwoman.
19:30 No one expects us to be superwoman, except ourselves.
19:33 That's one thing.
19:34 And then we suffer from this guilt.
19:35 So build your relationships with your family
19:38 and your workplace in a way that allows you
19:42 to live somewhat of a balanced life.
19:44 It's never perfectly balanced.
19:45 It's always hard, it's always stressful.
19:48 But if it brings you joy,
19:49 don't let being superwoman stop you.
19:52 - That's some great advice.
19:54 But before I let the three of you go,
19:57 we defined women empowerment as self-empowerment.
20:00 So I want to know from each of you,
20:02 starting with Payal, in one line,
20:03 if you could tell me what women empowerment means to you.
20:07 - I think to me, it would be helping the women
20:10 identify with their strength, with their inner strength.
20:14 Yes.
20:15 And also, then to utilize this strength
20:17 for their own benefit,
20:19 or as much beyond they can get with that strength.
20:24 Yeah.
20:25 That brings them peace.
20:26 - All right.
20:28 Pankaja, how about you?
20:29 - In one line, it's global empowerment.
20:32 I feel that unless you empower 50% of the population,
20:37 which is neglected and deprived,
20:39 you cannot have whole globe empowered.
20:42 So I think women cannot be ignored.
20:44 They are there, they're breathing,
20:46 they are working, they are living.
20:47 So they should, it's as important as men empowerment,
20:52 according to me.
20:53 - How about you, Zarina?
20:54 - So I think we need to understand
20:57 that we are not a minority.
21:00 We don't need, we are one half of the planet.
21:04 We are a huge force.
21:06 And the one thing we need to also realize
21:08 is that we bring tremendous strengths to the table.
21:11 Strengths the world really needs today,
21:14 in the workforce, in the political force, in the social,
21:18 in every sphere, women's special abilities
21:22 is not something to shy away from.
21:24 Those are the intuitive, nurturing, compassionate,
21:29 loving beauty and bringing to the world,
21:32 demanding that my work brings meaning into my life.
21:36 This is what's lacking in the world today.
21:38 This is what women bring to the table.
21:40 So I say, let's bring it, let's bring it on.
21:43 - All right then.
21:44 (audience applauding)
21:45 Well, I sincerely hope that all our panelists
21:48 have inspired you enough to realize
21:50 that you don't need the society to accept you.
21:53 You don't need the society to empower you.
21:55 It's all there within you.
21:57 So rise up to the challenge and as Ms. Arena says,
22:00 get going.
22:01 - They are capable of empowering society themselves.
22:04 (audience applauding)
22:07 (upbeat music)
22:09 (upbeat music)
22:12 (upbeat music)
22:15 (upbeat music)
22:17 (upbeat music)