Women aspiring entrepreneurs were provided encouraging tips of being successful entrepreneurs during a seminar on ‘Women Empowerment through Entrepreneurship by Ranchi chapter of PHD Chamber in association with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) on Thursday. The seminar which saw experts and young entrepreneurs like Malavika Sharma, Usha Jha and many others speaking and sharing about their experiences and views, with social activist Dayamani Barla putting completely different perspective on entrepreneurship and way forward for women in states like Jharkhand.
Most of the experts opined that entrepreneurship brought empowerment in women, which in result helped society become prosperous. They also believed that obstacles were more in mind than in practical life. “Wherever women were in board of directors or directors, the company registered better business than those which couldn’t have one. I can also claim not to be disturbed by male members in family and colleagues at workplace,” Jha added.
Presenting a totally different perspective of the word ‘business’ in context of Jharkhand, Dayamani Barla said that until Jal, Jungle and Jameen in the State would not be included in whatever we are desperate to call ‘development’. “I am also a businesswoman with have been running a tea stall since two decades. But people call me anti-entrepreneurship only because they find me connecting environment with entrepreneurship and development which doesn’t suit in their definition of development and entrepreneurship,” said Barla.
She went upon saying that women in Jharkhand had actively participated in freedom movement since 1860s. “Rural women have always been fighters in their personal lives and professional lives. But I find those rural women fascinating in a way that they never forgot nature in their daily lives, be it professional or personal. In my sense, Jharkhand is perhaps best model of sustainable growth through rural development in world. But it could be taken to another only through preservation of our nature,” said Barla.
Barla kept focused upon importance of ecological balance which could be preserved only through proper demarcation of agricultural, forest and mineral lands. “Rural development in my sense is just sustainable development which tribals of the State have kept intact despite all adversities. We will have to protect those interests,” Barla said.
Malavika Sharma shared encouraging experiences from her first job in Wipro to last in Dr Reddy’s and as a social entrepreneur, activist, speaker and author afterwards. “Destabilizing established set-up, culture and tradition of any village or area is the most common and one of the biggest mistakes in the way of entrepreneurship, which leads to failure of Self Help Group (SHG). We need to restructure SHG according to their strength and weaknesses,” said Sharma.
She also encouraged aspiring entrepreneurs not to talk about cultures, traditions and other petty things and talk about only and only business. “I shall ask you to find a neutral space and talk just business in place of being social on cultural issues,” said Sharma. She requested women entrepreneurs to get rid of their pre-conceived notion of virtual boundaries from family, society and workplace and get ready to new heights of entrepreneurship in times to come.