Women’s Day: These trailblazers show that gender equality can only be achieved if we have each other’s backs

They say, the future is female, and we’re certainly headed that way. Today, there are more women engineers, women in the workforce, women politicians, women authors, women entrepreneurs… in general – more women. 

Sadly, it is not enough. According to World Bank data, only 47 percent of women all over the world are a part of the global workforce compared to 74 percent of men.

That’s not all. In India, this number stands at 23.4 percent. But does that mean women are not working at all?

A report by the International Labour Organisation reveals that women are actually disproportionately burdened by unpaid caregiving responsibilities – 21.7 percent, compared to only 1.5 percent of men – which means a lot of the work women do is unpaid and unacknowledged.

But not all is bleak, and we’ve certainly come a long way. Take India, for instance. In the last 100-odd years, we have managed to allow our women to study and work (allow being key here), we’ve successfully abolished practices like Sati and child marriage (it still happens in pockets, but we don’t talk about it), we’ve had one woman Prime Minister and one woman President (more than the US on this one), and we even had a moderately successful #MeToo movement. 

Women in India are certainly not in the background anymore. However, it isn’t enough if this change doesn’t include women from all walks of life. 

Like Mother Teresa said, “I alone cannot change the world. But, I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

And while we still have a long way to go, this International Women’s Day, we list some women creating ripples and changing lives for many other Indian women.

Laxmi Agarwal

In 2005, acid attack survivor Laxmi Agarwal was only 15 years old when she was attacked by two men. Physical pain, mental trauma, counselling, and seven surgeries later, Laxmi has found renewed purpose in life. 

In 2013, her petition moved the Supreme Court to pass an order regulating the sale of acid, reservation in educational institutions, and easier access to jobs.

In the same year, she became a part of the acid attack movement, joining Alok Dixit and Ashish Shukla, who started the ‘Stop Acid Attacks’ campaign. The three started the Chhanv Foundation, reaching out to hundreds of victims of acid attacks, assisting them with treatment, rehabilitation, and legal help.

In a previous interaction, Laxmi said, “Through my story, I want to tell all the women to support one another, become our strength, and help fight this menace of violence against women.”

Needless to say, she has inspired many, including Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone, who produced and acted in the lead role in Chhapaak, a movie based on Laxmi’s life.

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Samyuktha Vijayan

Although we have come a long way, the stigma around the transgender community still persists in India. Many are abandoned, subjected to violence and abuse, shunned by society, and not given a chance to pursue academics or a mainstream job.

But, 34-year-old trans woman Samyuktha Vijayan set out to make a change. Hailing from Coimbatore, Samyuktha was working with Amazon in the US when she decided to uplift the trans community in India. 

Quitting her job, Samyuktha moved to Bengaluru and started TouteStudio, an Indian-wear fashion boutique, which has trained and hired trans women as designers, customer service representatives, etc.

In an earlier conversation, she said, “The long-term goal for TouteStudio is to be able to offer jobs for any transgender women or men so that they could lead a dignified life.”

Raena Ambani

‘Killing two birds with one stone’ aptly describes Raena Ambani’s initiative BigPA. A social enterprise based in Mumbai, BigPA is using waste management to empower women across villages in Maharashtra. 

And guess what? BigPA is led by three women, one of whom is a survivor of domestic violence. Raena, who is studying sports engineering in the UK, not only trained and educated these women, but also gave them a chance to be financially independent. 

In an earlier interaction, she said, “It wasn’t an easy job to convince them to work with me because they still had that old mindset that women should stay at home, cook, clean, and do domestic chores.”

Today, the trio heads manufacturing, finances, and marketing for BigPA, and takes care of coordination and supervising too. It also has 12 part-time women employees who manufacture these products from home when there are large orders to ship.

Earlier, BigPA wasn’t making profits as the products were sold to companies who needed them for social causes. However, thanks to the Amazon Saheli Programme, Raena says bulk orders have increased.

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Laad Lohar

Education is the foundation of empowerment, especially when it comes to women. But, reports suggest that 23 million girls in India drop out of school every year due to lack of proper menstrual hygiene facilities. Some don’t even know about sanitary napkins while others cannot afford them.

Laad Lohar, hailing from Udaipur, also had to drop out of school for the same reason – the onset of her menstrual cycle. Later, realising that she missed out on opportunities because of this, Laad decided to ensure that other girls don’t have to face what she did.

She started by spreading awareness about menstrual hygiene in her village. In an earlier conversation, she said, “I literally went door to door to converse about menstrual health… I got to know that many young girls entered puberty with no support mechanism. They were oblivious to the availability of sanitary napkins. The few who did have some knowledge about it were not able to pay for it.”

That’s not all. Laad also figured out a cost-effective way to make reusable sanitary pads – using cotton and banana fibre. So far, she has trained more than 500 women to produce their own sanitary napkins. She herself makes at least 10 a day, which cost Rs 35 per piece.   

Now, Laad is looking for NGOs and social enterprises to collaborate with to reach more women and girls.

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Shravani Pawar

Any job that requires physical fitness is automatically deemed ‘masculine’ by our society. For example, security guards. But, breaking this stereotype is entrepreneur Shravani Pawar, Founder of Safe Hands 24x7.

Here, women from poor financial and weaker sections of society are trained to become security guards by former servicemen of the Indian Army.

Safe Hands 24x7 has trained around 600 women so far, and provides services across Karnataka, Goa, Hyderabad, and Chennai.

Tanaz Mohammed

If you are one who believes sports is not for women, you should meet Tanaz Mohammed, a national-level hockey player and a football coach.

Having pursued football for over three years now, Tanaz serves as the Grassroots Development Officer for the Mumbai City Football Club. She is also a level one Coach Educator at Premier Skills, an initiative by the British Council and a development coach for Reliance Young Champs.

But, her biggest project so far has been a 10-day coaching camp for girls in Mumbai’s Madanpura, a largely Muslim-dominated community. 

In an earlier conversation, Tanaz said, “In Madanpura, boys’ football is given more importance, and the girls aren’t really out in big numbers. But when I went there, the parents realised that their girls would be safe, training with a female coach, and over 400 girls showed up. By the end of the camp, I was coaching the women who accompanied them as well!”

She plans to go across India to help girls realise that they have what it takes to grab sporting opportunities available out there.

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Shivkala Mudaliar

India may be open-defecation free, but public toilets are still a challenge for many, especially women as we can contract infections and disease from dirty and unhygienic public utilities.

Well, fret no more – at least if you are in Mumbai. To solve this persisting problem, Shivkala Mudaliar along with Manish Kelshikar opened WOLOO, a powder room facility for women near the Thane Railway Station. 

For a one-time usage for Rs 20 or a subscription of Rs 499 per month, women can use WOLOO, which is air-conditioned, secured with CCTVs, and even equipped with a small cafe providing freshly brewed coffee, tea, and beverages.

It also has a diaper changing station, an area for breastfeeding, and stocks underwear, sanitary products, and sewing kits. 

In an earlier conversation, Shivkala told us, “When you talk about toilets or washrooms, there is an assumption of the stink and unhygienic environment that comes to your mind, and we did not want that. So, when we were coming up with the plan, we said ‘How do we then portray it?’ or ‘What addition can we do to make women comfortable?’ in this space.”

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)