The past few weeks, the release of the controversial film  India’s Daughter has spurred much debate across India and the world over the status of women in India. The prevailing opinion is that India isn’t a very great place to be a woman. So when a Women Managers’ Convention, organised by the Madras Management Association, called ‘Voices: Express, Empower, Enable’ took place here one couldn’t help but marvel at the irony of it all.

    Part of this one-day convention was a session titled ‘Voices of Triumph’ that briefly recounted the lives of the panellists who had beaten the odds to carve a niche for themselves in fields that are conventionally considered the preserve of men. Chaired by Elizabeth Verghese, Chancellor, Hindustan University, the panel comprised the first MBA-qualified Sarpanch in India, Chhavi Rajawat, of village Soda, Rajasthan; veteran journalist Rasheeda Bhagat; and Wg Cdr Pooja Thakur, the first female officer to head the inter-services Guard of Honour. 

   Having recently been re-elected for a second term, Rajawat took to the dais first with a well-prepared audio-visual presentation and spoke about the challenges she had to overcome as the Sarpanch of a drought-stricken, backward region. “The village didn’t have a drop of water to drink,” she said. She undertook a water conservation project which sought to revive a reservoir covering 100 acres. “I ran from pillar to post with no success,” she explained. Finally, with the support of funds from near and dear ones, Rajawat was able to desalinate 10 acres of it.

   Rasheeda Bhagat’s speech covered a range of subjects, such as her opinion on the recent ban on the documentary, her views on Indian society and women, assignments through her career that afforded her greater access than male journalists in regions such as West Asia, and the importance of knowing one’s rights, especially as a working woman. She regaled the audience with professional and personal anecdotes from her career spanning 32 years.  The overriding message of Bhagat’s talk: “We have to let women be, and give them wings to fly.” And flying, quite literally, was the struggle for Wg Cdr Pooja Thakur. Thakur’s talk, like Bhagat’s, was peppered with anecdotes and covered everything from the reasons behind her decision to join the military to her fear of heights and struggling to learn to air jump. Today, she has not only successfully overcome the fear of flying but went on to become the first lady officer to lead the Inter-Services Guard of Honour which was inspected by US President Barack Obama at Rashtrapati Bhavan in the capital in January.

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