The real change starts from home: PR experts

As society grapples with multifaceted challenges ranging from poverty and inequality to healthcare and education disparities, the unique perspectives, skills, and empathetic qualities that women bring to the table become increasingly valuable in the social sector. At the e4m Public Relations & Corporate Communications Women Achievers & Summit Awards, some incredible women leaders discussed a compelling case for the imperative inclusion of women. 

The panel included Dr Ranjana Kumari, Director of Centre for Social Research; Dr Suman Chahar, CEO of Indcare Development Foundation; Dr Mane Mkrtchyan, Writer and Activist; Pallabi Ghosh, Founder and Director of Impact and Dialogue Foundation while the session was moderated by Rahul Kashyap, Chief Operating Officer, PRProfessionals.

Starting the conversation, the session moderator, Rahul Kashyap started the discussion by asking the ‘The Status of Women as a Leader in Social Sector’.

Following this, Ranjana Kumari, who has done tremendous work in the social sector, started the discussion. She said, "The social sector is almost like the fourth pillar of democracy because civil society is the one that connects the state with the people, which brings the people's issues to the state movement in India. The role of civil society throughout India has had a history of civil society, like society working for social change pre-independence and post-independence. There have been groups of people who take it upon themselves to move social change, and that has been the history of civil society."

To highlight the role of women as a leader in the social sector, she added, "You see that women have played a vital role in building the movement, in making the organization, and in responding to the issues, but when you look at the leadership criteria in civil society, I feel that we should have seen more women in leadership positions.”

Taking this discussion forward, Suman Chahar, who has been working in the social sector for a long time, stated the role of Civil Society organizations in empowering women as a leader in the social sector. She mentioned, "Civil Society Organizations play a vital role; without Civil Society Organizations, government cannot run programs because we work in the field and give them report that NGO and Government both are partners, especially for Child Marriage- How to Stop Child Marriage, How to Motivate, How to Educate, How to Empower Women, Policy Advocacy, starting conversation with the Community leaders and promote them to speak in public which is very important because normally we don't encourage women in the field where men dominate s+o that's why we have to encourage women."

Pallabi Ghosh took over the conversation and added ‘In civil society, the number of women is less. I would also mention that organizations which women head are not because they are very much at the top and are not much evolved in more profound interventions within the team. 

To emphasize on the bigger problem, she also shared an instance. “There are some MNCs in Bangalore who have told me that they don't hire women if they are married. During interviews, they ask questions like are you planning for a child? We are living in a gender-equal world, but still, this kind of thing is happening. I realize they are very deep-seated, very culturally rooted, and tremendous work must be done to do away with it,” Pallabi added.

Agreeing with the facts that Pallabi shared, Rahul continued the discussion and asked Mane Mkrtchyan, an Armenian writer and activist, to share her thoughts on the cultural similarities in Indian and Armenia and the scope for improvement in Indian society.

In this respect, she stated, “Armenia and India are ancient civilizations; hence, you will not find much difference. I believe that there are many such social problems as there have been in India, like the practice of Sati, the practice of purdah, child marriage, widow remarriage was prohibited, etc. There have been many such social problems, but if we go to the root, then the root is one, that is patriarchy.”

After recognizing the root cause of this prevalent problem, Ranjana Kumari shared her experience of taking the initiative to reverse the sex ratio in our country. She shared, "In some places of India, the situation is terrible in the zero to six group as there are 700-800 girls and 1000 boys. In such a situation, the roles played by women's organizations like in Haryana and my organization, the Center for Social Research, took this challenge to reverse this sex ratio in Haryana. We went door to door and talked to the elderly of the family. We started with that kind of conversation in the panchayats rather than schools. Then we targeted schools and colleges so the young generation, when they become parents, will think differently. Due to her commendable efforts, the sex ratio in Kurukshetra in Ambala in Jhajjar was reversed in two districts."

Taking the discussion to the end, Pallabi Ghosh stated: "I always say that first secure your home; if the house is safe, then gradually the community and society will be safe, and then India will be safe. We always say change outside; we want to see the change out. First, you have to ensure that change happens inside your home, so this is the biggest thing.”