Today’s episode is the third in our series on women’s participation in the workforce in India. Every year, class XII grades show girls outperforming boys in science subjects. A McKinsey study, shows that in India women make up 43% of those graduating but only 25% of those in entry level jobs. That is a huge drop. There are many explanations including marriage, childbirth, care for elders, being the trailing spouse, safety, and all of this compounds as you go higher in the career ladder. The burden of childcare and elder care almost entirely falls on women. The effect shows on the labor participation rate. At an effective 11% participation in manufacturing and services, we trail many mature and emerging countries.
For some time now, I’ve brought you individual stories of guests with outsized abilities and wisdom. So, in a break from tradition, today, I bring you a panel discussion with 3 leaders, who have the unique distinction of being able to shape the participation of women at work in India and with a different perspective and background. Joining me are Hema Hattangady, former CEO of Conzerv, an Indian family-owned enterprise acquired by Schneider Electric, who sits on the board of multiple companies and an alumnus of IIM Calcutta, Dr. Murali Padmanabhan, Senior VP for Global Talent & OD at Virtusa, leadership coach and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Hyderabad and Shonalie Gupta, Senior Director Organization Development at Indegene, diversity and inclusion coach and an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur.
In this episode, we discuss awareness of India’s dismal female participation, societal stereotypes, and challenges. But that is not all. We go further and give you practical, tested, tips and ideas on how to have the conversation around increasing female labor participation, beginning with small changes at an individual level to large scale organization impact. To cap it off, each of the panelists include their wish list of how they see corporate India 20 years from now. Go on, grab a cuppa joe, a note pad and tune in.
Read a transcript of this interview at: https://www.tellitlikeitispodcast.com/post/s5-e4-bonus-women-at-work-in-india-tell-it-like-it-is
Recommended reading:
One of the reasons women drop out of the workforce is childbirth. Troubling as that is, even today, many women lose their lives during pregnancy and childbirth. A key indicator of maternal mortality is the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR). Recently, the Government of India published MMR for 2016-18 which stood at 113. To put this into context, the target 3.1 of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by United Nations aims at reducing the global maternal mortality ratio to less than 70 per 100,000 live births. So, what can be done? Countries like Canada, Sri Lanka and the UK have combated MMR by introducing trained midwives into the process, vital to the care and delivery of low-risk pregnant women. It is important to mention here that about 75% of all pregnant women fall in the low-risk category and it is the 25% cases that are complicated and require an obstetrician’s attention. With over 25 million children born every year in India, and only 86,000 professionally trained midwives, there is a huge gap.
This episode focuses on maternal mortality and helping women enjoy motherhood without the inherent risks of childbirth through a simple, effective, and forgotten method. My guest is Dr. Evita Fernandez, Chairperson-Fernandez Foundation, and a Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She is the recipient of The Lifetime Achievement in Healthcare Award by FICCI, Hyderabad, besides other awards. In 2017, the Government of Telangana felicitated her for rendering exemplary services in the Field of Medicine. In 2011, she introduced a Professional Midwifery Education and Training Programme, committed to creating a national cadre of professional midwives. I caught up with her to understand how midwifery could be the solution to helping millions of women enjoy childbirth and have agency over their own bodies.
Contact Fernandez Foundation: https://www.fernandez.foundation/
Read a transcript of this interview at: https://www.tellitlikeitispodcast.com/post/s5-e3-bring-back-the-midwife-tell-it-like-it-is
Recommended reading:
1. Woman centred care: Has the definition been morphing of late? Elizabeth Rigg & Hannah Grace Dahlen
India ranks pretty low in female labor participation. In 2019, female labor participation stood at a meagre 27% in comparison to China’s female labor participation at 60%. In India, over 60% of those who are employed are in agriculture, resulting effectively, in 11% female labor participation in services and manufacturing. It is well understood that if we are to go grow as a nation, then we need more women at the workplace. Prima facie, this should be easy, given our female to male ratio. Per the United Nations, women make up 48.04% of the population. However, in reality, getting women to participate in the formal workforce is far from easy. Especially since a large section of women are ill equipped with the basic skills and do not possess a high school degree. Why is that? This is so because a large number of girls simply drop out of school when they hit puberty, acerbated by unique socio-cultural stereotypes.
My guest today is Anusha Bharadwaj, Executive Director of Voice4Girls, a social enterprise working with marginalized adolescent girls in rural Telangana and Andhra with a vision to educate and empower girls against violence and inequality. In our free-wheeling conversation, we touch upon many topics and taboos that are entrenched in our society, gender inequality, stereotypes, violence, early marriage and how keeping adolescent girls in school through high school might just be the way to increasing their participation in the workforce of the future.
Contact Voice4Girls
Read a transcript of this interview at: https://www.tellitlikeitispodcast.com/post/s5-e2-tell-it-like-it-is-voice-for-girls
In a low cost, labour intensive market like India, autonomous vehicles seem counter intuitive. What is the story here? Join me, Manisha Kadagathur, as I chat with Saurabh Chandra, co-founder of Ati Motors, one of the coolest startups in India that makes autonomous cargo vehicles based in Bangalore. Cool for many reasons, not the least for an unusual team of co-founders, the youngest of whom was barely a teen when he joined. Club that with using tech like AI/ML, power electronics, control systems, mechanical engineering, system software and electronic hardware, and it makes the whole enterprise unique. As you will see over our conversation, a strong purpose, and relentless focus on solving for problems aka performance in the Indian context are two key themes that emerge. With COVID-19 lockdowns putting the focus on safety, and the lack of domestic help, the use of home robots and dishwashers has gone up multi-fold in Indian cities. So, I began right there before we branched off into discussing the tech, backstory, role of serendipity, use cases and unique Indian challenges.
Check them out at Ati Motors
Read a transcript of this interview at: https://www.tellitlikeitispodcast.com/post/s5-e1-autonomous-vehicles-tell-it-like-it-is
Join me, Manisha Kadagathur, as we return with a brand new season and more stories of phenomenal ideas and committed guests. This season we have stories on innovation, grit, gumption and the role of serendipity, and our stories take us crisscrossing across India from Shillong in the North East to Hyderabad and Bangalore in the South. So, join us for new stories, new inspiration, and hope.
For billions of children across the world, schooling and education has taken a new meaning. Bedrooms, kitchen counters, dining tables, a mat on the floor became the new classroom and the noise around EdTech rose to a crescendo. Amidst the din, it is easy to forget that in 1937, Gandhiji conceptualised Nai Talim, an alternate philosophy of education which states that work and knowledge are not separate. The three pillars of Gandhiji's pedagogy were it's focus on the lifelong character of education, it's social character, and it's form as a holistic process. I caught up with Sushama Sharma, the principal of Anand Niketan (a Nai Talim school) in Sewagram in Wardha District of Maharashtra. She is a Gandhian, farmer and activist who strongly believes that sustainability is the way forward. In our conversation, we spoke of what Nai Talim means today, how an alternate education philosophy creates impact, and why consumerism as a lifestyle is unsustainable. She shares exciting snippets of her personal journey so find a comfortable spot to look out the window and partake of an alternate possibility while the soundtrack of your own life plays in the background.
We can choose to stay away from politics, but politics will not stay away from us. Those are the prophetic words from Srikanth Narsimhan, the co-founder and general secretary of Bengaluru NavaNirmana Party (BNP). In an earlier episode on housing societies during the Covid-19 lockdown, a management committee member told me that in a housing society, “Everybody is a CEO”. Listen to that episode here. With egos that large, getting anyone to coalesce takes a lot of energy and time. That’s where Srikanth had his first brush with public service bringing together 1000 housing societies representing 6 lac residents to band together. Previously, he worked in companies like ICICI Venture, E&Y and Tata Motors. He is an engineer from BITS, Pilani and a management graduate from IIM, Bangalore. Today, it is Bangalore that his heart bleeds for. How did that happen? Why did he float a political party? Join me as I find out more.
Cameo: Pankaj Chopra
Join me, Manisha Kadagathur, as I chat with Arun D’Silva, co-founder & CEO of Retail Interface Pvt Ltd and the India brand representative for Frederique Constant among other luxury watches.
Getting fired from your job finds you at a momentous fork in your life that leads you down one of two paths – you can either let that moment define the rest of your life, turn bitter and make bad decisions one after the other or you can see it for what it is and move on. Arun D’Silva’s story begins there. From that fork in the road, Arun went on to build one of India’s largest and best-known luxury retail businesses. How did that happen? What choices did he make? How did he get over the trauma? Today’s fantastic story explores all that and more.
Today’s story is all heart. It is the wonderful and sweet story of Pavitra Chalam, an award-winning documentary film maker and founder of Curley Street Media with a master’s degree in film making from New York Film Academy. Seven years ago, Pavitra became obsessed with telling the story of Baby Roona Begum, a child born with hydrocephalus, a birth defect caused by the build up of fluid leading to a massive swelling in the head. You can catch that story on Netflix as Rooting for Roona. This is not the first such story that Pavitra has featured. In fact, she’s made a career of making documentary films of congenital birth defects and of women’s prenatal health and care. In our conversation, we speak of the reasons that difficult topics like these form the basis of her story telling, the process of fund raising for documentaries and how she measures the impact of those stories.
The discourse on public policy is relatively new in India and the Takshashila Institution is a pioneer in this field having set up in 2010. I caught up with Nitin Pai, co-founder and director of the Takshashila Institution, an independent centre for research and education in public policy, to understand the mandate of the think tank, how public policy engages with the Executive and how large-scale change is brought about. As citizens, we all owe a responsibility in participating in governance and improving our lives.
Contact Takshashila Institution here
If you are mid-career and reflecting on the first half of your career, you have probably asked yourself – What impact have the actions of the past years had on my life (personally and professionally) and what have I contributed to the community around me. How many leaps of faith have I taken and how many have taken those leaps with me?
With me today is Biren Bhuta, who has made taking leaps of faith an art form, beginning with a traditional job in banking to business journalism with NDTV and corporate social responsibility in Tata Steel. Currently, Biren is engaged in his exciting new venture, Disom, a leadership school for political aspirants. During our conversation, we spoke of taking a journey inwards, slowing down and listening to one’s conscience and inner voice to find the next path, holding paradoxes, learning from nature and native tribes and most importantly redefining reward question as what have I contributed as opposed to what’s in it for me . So, have you ever taken a leap of faith?
Contact: Disom
Credits:
Storybook by Scott Holmes, on freemusicarchive.org, CC Attribution Non Commercial-NoDerivates 4.0
My guest is Viren Rasquinha, former captain of the Indian hockey team, an Olympian and CEO of Olympic Gold Quest. During his playing career, Viren has represented India in 180 international matches including competing at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He is an Arjuna Awardee and has been a member of the PMO Task Force in 2016 (along with Pullela Gopichand, Abhinav Bindra and others) that prepared India’s plans for the next three Olympics in 2020 (now in 2021), 2024 and 2028.
In today’s conversation we speak of dreams so big that they consume your entire childhood, and you follow them faithfully into later years. Dreams that make an impact on an entire nation and inspire generations of young children to pursue sport and compete at the highest level, the Olympics. We cover the grueling hours of practice that athletes endure day after day, far from the watchful eyes of fans. We flit back and forth between history and the present day so bear with us. We speak of the lessons that sport teaches you, the role of a coach, structural changes required in India’s outlook toward sport and how the Olympic Gold Quest is fueling a dream in over 300 athletes. It’s all about those 6gms of gold.
Contribute: Olympic Gold Quest
This season we focus on stories of impact.
Credits:
Storybook by Scott Holmes, on freemusicarchive.org, CC Attribution Non Commercial-NoDerivates 4.0
My guest today is Savio John Pereira, award winning celebrity hairstylist and founder of a chain of upscale salons and the Savio John Pereira academy in Mumbai. Savio’s story is one of coming in from the outside and building a personal brand, a story filled with glamour, gloss, high drama, and a never give up attitude. Alongside, it features some gems that go into building a successful luxury salon business. Sometimes the road to the destination is not obvious, its circuitous but with deep observation, thinking ahead, staying visible and paying attention to the little things, you can forge ahead.
My guest today is Manish Gupta, co-founder, and CEO of Indegene, a 3000 member global health solutions company specializing in research, content and data solutions to the pharma industry worldwide leveraging analytics and AI. The pharma industry, a highly regulated one, lends itself to the use of AI and digital capabilities since vast data sets exist across the product life cycle and therefore, the genius in spotting this opportunity.
We cover:
- Building a global company from India, raising capital from early investors, strength of the core team;
- Pivoting when faced by the headwinds of the dotcom bust and patent cliff;
- Inflection points and how those translated into opportunities;
- Clarity of purpose, outsized ambition, precision, and an easy vibe as a leader
If you are interested in the life sciences industry and get your kicks from applying digital and AI solutions to solve for problems, check Indegene out. They’re hiring.
Join me, Manisha Kadagathur, as I chat with Ayon Banerjee, author of “As you Life it - Work as usual, Life as unusual”. We talk about overlapping boundaries of work and life, of successes and failure, of time, of youth, of dreams and relationships – all of it captured as a Work-Life tool kit.
Today’s conversation is peppered with advice and life lessons for anyone navigating work and life. There is no narrative and arc here, just a freewheeling catch-up with someone who has been through many experiences and has been thoughtful enough to capture it in a book for others. Think of it as many conversations rolled into one episode. Exactly the way, Ayon intended his book to be read.
Grab your copy of his book here: As you life it - Work as usual, Life as unusual
This episode is a Masterclass in entrepreneurship. At the same time, it is a fantastic story of a husband-wife team who were partners in business and are partners for life. I am delighted to share the inspiring story of Hema & Ashok Hattangady who turned a small family owned energy metering company into one of India’s finest energy management companies, leading to its eventual sale to Schneider Electric in 2009. Hema is a management graduate from IIM Calcutta and Ashok has a master's degree from UT, Austin but their story is about so much more. It includes family politics, the role of a strategic investor and mentor, navigating through the regulatory, social and business environment and how the design philosophy percolated into the culture of the company they built. Hema Hattangady and Conzerv is a case taught at Harvard, London Business School, University of California, San Francisco, and Babson’s College. If you are an entrepreneur, a spouse, or a co-founder, grab your favourite brew, a note pad and pen and plug in your headphones. Trust me, you will be taking a lot of notes.
Grab your copy of the book here: Lift Off: The Story of Conzerv
Connect with Hema Hattangady here
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” In India, all of us have been asked this question by assorted aunts and uncles. Most common responses include - Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer, Chartered Accountant, sometimes vet and nowadays, YouTuber. Growing up, did you ever want to be a politician? You think I’m crazy. My guest today is a 3rd generation politician in Uttar Pradesh. Rahul Kaushik, a design consultant with a master’s degree from IIT Bombay, chucked it all to carry forward the legacy of his father. Today, he is the Pradesh Karyakarini Sadasya, Samajwadi Party.
In a profession where the chances of being elected are less than 1% and where there is constant public scrutiny; a different kind of weapon is at play – a soft power. Rahul says, being clear about the purpose, knowing your goals, building consensus, developing keen observation, and really listening to people’s needs are the ingredients to success as a politician. Come to think of it, these apply to any profession minus 24x7 surveillance and constant judgment.
Interact with Rahul here: https://facebook.com/rahul.kaushik