Corporate women - benchmark for progress?

~By Anu Anand Hall

I have a major objection to the way India is covered in the international news media (I have a real problem with domestic Indian news too, but that's entirely a different story!) Nearly every story sings the praises of India's booming economy... few can be bothered to qualify those impressive figures with a dose of reality. The biggest culprit, in my view, has been the Economist, though reporting recently has changed for the better... and the biggest hero (ie overall best, balanced coverage) is The New York Times, which consistently devotes many column inches to a wide variety of aspects of Indian life.

    But I have to take issue with a recent column in the NYT. The Female Factor, by Nilanjana S. Roy, appeared in December in the paper's sister publication, The International Herald Tribune. While I agree with its overall premise (that the current crop of female corporate bosses in India are the products of immense privilege and connections) ... I do wonder why the news media seems to equate corporate success with progress for women? Does selling Pepsi (or Coke or shoes or pizzas) really represent the pinnacle of achievement? I'm sure it does to some degree, but why aren't we more often reading about women in other walks of life who are celebrated as objects of emulation and envy?

So I'd like to propose an alternative list of inspiring Indian women (hopefully some whom you've never heard of). This is by no means a complete or exhaustive list!! And I've purposely left out the likes of Ela Bhatt and Arundhati Roy (love her or hate her, she has the courage to speak up) since they're already so well-known:

Bhanwari Devi is both a victim of the worst kind of violence against women, as well as a victor. She was gang-raped by five men in her rural Rajasthani village for opposing child marriage. Bleeding and in pain, she travelled by bus with her equally traumatized husband to Rajasthan's capital, where she eventually found a doctor who would examine her. During her trial, she braved threats, taunts (the prosecuting lawyer asked if she'd experienced wetness during the rape, as women do when they enjoy sex!), and ultimately, legal defeat. Her attackers were acquitted by a callous and indifferent system which is stacked against rape victims. Undaunted, she has continued her fight against child marriage and the oppression of women. Her ordeal was chronicled in the film, Bawandar (Sandstorm), starring Nandita Das, who I also greatly admire for taking on unpopular roles with bravery and tremendous grace.

Kaveri Sharma provides legal representation for Asian women in East London who have been abused, beaten or exploited. Kaveri is Indian born and bred, but unlike so many who leave the country, she's not emigrated in search of a six-figure corporate salary. Instead, true to her upbringing, she's devoted her working life to protecting vulnerable women. A new mother, Kaveri is also a role model in the way she unapologetically combines motherhood and work, taking her son into meetings with clients, as well as into large conference halls to give speeches!

Recently, Kaveri was shaken to her core by the murder of one of her clients by the woman's estranged husband. How many of us could carry on? But whatever she chooses to do with the rest of her life, I imagine she will continue to serve others in her quiet, determined way.

Asha Bhonsle is a playback singer. I don't even have to tell you who she is if you're a fan of Hindi music. But what I love about Asha is that she ran off with her sister's personal secretary at the age of 16, had three kids, left him and then had six decades of success as a singer, doing the song roles no one else wanted: vamps, outcasts and caberet dancers!! Touche! What an interesting woman and a bloody good cook to boot!

Harinder Baweja is a veteran Indian journalist, now Editor, Investigations, for India's groundbreaking Tehelka magazine. She's spent many years reporting on the conflict in Kashmir, among other stories, telling the truth about atrocities when many would prefer not to know. So often, we celebrate achievement over humanity... but ask any Kashmiri journalist about Ms. Baweja and you'll hear, 'She's a really nice woman!' So achievement and humanity, that's worth tons in my book.

Her colleague on Tehelka, Shoma Chaudhury, is also a woman of courage and conviction, sticking by the publication when the government shut it down after she helped break the story of bribe-taking amongst senior Indian defence staff.

Asha Singh is a lawyer who is fighting for the very existence of baby girls. It's estimated that six million girls have been aborted in India in just two decades! Although it's illegal to tell prospective Indian parents the sex of their unborn child, many doctors do it fairly openly for money, as well as flauting the laws that strictly regulate the use of ultrasound machines. Parents -- statistics show, ironically, that it's the wealthier ones who see girls as financial and social burdens -- then simply abort them, like excising a wart. To read about Asha, as well as other feminists for our age, click here.

Shubha Tole is definitely one woman you've never heard of I'm sure! She's a biologist in Mumbai who researches how the signals that stimulate the growth and development of the hippocampus are controlled in the embryonic brain. Erm, huh? It means that she is helping to figure out what happens when things go wrong during the intricate process of building the brain, causing disorders such as autism or schizophrenia.

Dr. Tole was recently one of only three women to win India's prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar award for scientific research. Why did I personally include her here? Well, she managed to set up a dedicated brain research lab in Mumbai while pregnant...and has written with candor and humor about the experience, as well as acknowledging that she couldn't have done it at all without the support of two 'ordinary' women who stood in for her constantly so she could go to work. Read the piece-- it's lovely!

And if you're interested, here are more inspiring Indian women in science. 

Vinita Bhargava wrote 'Adoption in India' and is an adoptive mother herself. When I met her a few years ago, she spoke movingly and honestly about the process of taking on someone else's child and forging a lasting bond. It's hard work, as any adoptive parent knows first-hand! Some adopted children suffer health problems or physical issues... some don't allow their new parents the kind of intimacy a new mother or father longs for, causing emotional scars... others constantly feel 'different' to their families, because of course, they are. Mrs. Bhargava adopted a girl after having had a biological son. She is all too aware, as well, of the legal and bureaucratic obstacles adoptive families face. Since I've been back in India, I've come across several adoptive parents. The level of support for a couple who are suddenly faced with a rambunctious little stranger in their lives is severely limited. Carefully followed adoption procedures can go badly wrong, leaving fragile new families in limbo. So to Vinita, but also all adoptive parents and children...

Romila Thapar is lately, a controversial professor of early Indian history and author. Controversial because she dares to oppose the rewriting of history textbooks by Hindu-nationalist politicians. In fact, devout Hindus, like absolutists of any stripe, really don't like being told the historical truth -- that early Hindus ate pork and even, gasp, beef!

Anita Juneja champions those women (and men) who clean, cook, sweep and provide childcare for millions of well-to-do urban Indians. She's convenor of the Delhi Domestic Workers' Union which represents nearly a million 'domestics' in the capital alone. Their work is not even recognized as 'work' by law, so they are unprotected by labor laws in this country! I know of many Indians who pay for their servants' health care, help educate their children and even provide pensions in old age. Similarly, I know of exploited children and migrants paid slave wages and kept forcibly indoors, of servants prohibited from using bathrooms at work. One posh colony even prohibits the children of servants from playing in the kiddie parks dotted around! Because of course, only rich children should be allowed to enjoy themselves...

Karnam Malleswari is an Olympic bronze medal winning Indian weightlifter from the rural south. 'Nuf said.

Indian midwives, those women who bring millions of new Indians into the world are actually despised as lowly untouchables. Because they handle the after-birth, they are considered ritually polluted, and so live ostracized from the very society they help create! Here are two women who are working to change this appalling state of affairs: 

Manju Chhugani and Uma Handa

Manju Chhugani is a lecturer at the College of Nursing Jamia Hamdard University. She has been teaching midwifery since 1991 and is the secretary for the Society of Midwives (India), Delhi Chapter. She is working on a Skilled Birth Attendant training project of the government of India. Manju's goals are to work toward raising the standards of nursing and midwifery education in India and to work persistently for safe motherhood and women's empowerment. 

Uma Handa has a BS and an MSc in Nursing with specialization in obstetrics and gynecology. Uma's present goal is to encourage mothers to go through natural childbirth so that unnecessary medical and surgical interventions can be avoided. She is a member of: Nursing Research Society of India (Founder), Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI), White Ribbon Alliance India (WRAI), Society of Midwives, and Executive Committee member, Birth India.

Here are a few other inspiring links I found during my search:

http://www.womenforwomen.org/

http://fabulousfemalerolemodels.blogspot.com/

 And if you want to read about some amazing women in Indian history... google Cornelia Sorabhji and Kamaladevi just for a start...

 

Comments

[coolblogger]

Pretty good and very inspirational.

[V. Singh]

This is a wonderful list of women who matter because, among other things, their work matters. A small quibble --- I've met devout Hindus who are not absolutist... the degree of devotion is not necessarily proportional to narrow-mindedness. I wonder what makes people ignore women engaged in social justice issues and science and focus solely or mostly on corporate women.

[love sms]

This issue is a good list of women, because, among other things, people and social justice issues and ignore the women in science and women's organizations to focus on the task of creating entirely or mainly wondering matters.I.