Dr. Kalpana Sankar(KS) is the co-founder of Hand in Hand India and Managing Director, Belstar Microfinance. She is an advocate of women empowerment and gender equality. She built both the organisations from scratch over the last two decades. Under her dynamic leadership, these organisations have transformed the lives of about 6.3 million women.
Your growth journey…
We incorporated Hand in Hand India in 2004 with 3 full-time and a couple of part time staffs. We have now grown to 10,000+ staff working across 15 group entities, after almost 19 years. We started as a not-for-profit organisation to ensure sustainability through other group interventions and have expanded our forte into microfinance. Women empowerment is our major drive and we are working with 22 lakh women across 18 states in India including 2 UTs. Other than this, we work with an integrated approach for poverty alleviation focusing on child labour elimination, health, skill development and environment.
Have you been treated differently because you’re a woman?
I have felt left out several times. In the early days of my career, I was never consulted. Men used to take decisions on my behalf, especially at the boardroom. In 2012, I got a scholarship at TRIUM E-MBA and that equipped me with the skills and confidence to handle different situations and challenges at my organisation.
What must be done to attract more women into the workforce?
I think it should start from schooling. Girls should be trained to look beyond their families. Unfortunately, many aspire only for reproductive roles. Handsome investments should be made for women education with ample concessions to enable women reach higher positions. Slowly stereotypes are being broken and women are making a foray into several domains.
Apart from these, government should come up with policies for identifying smart women leaders, encourage them to undergo training at premium institutions like IITs, IIMs, so that they can take over the board roles. In Netherlands, the CEOs are compensated based on the number of women leaders they promote. I think such incentives will bring more women into main decision-making roles.
Policy and support system for inclusivity…
After covid there are lot of changes. Women are on the lookout for comfortable flexi-hour jobs so that they can manage both work and family with ease. They are very focused and give better results. We also need to come up with educational programmes, after office hours, at least once in a fortnight. Organisations should set apart a separate L& D budget and report the amount of resources spent towards women empowerment in terms of equipping them for the future digital world.
What do you think men can do to help women join the workforce?
We cannot empower women without men’s support. They play a very important role. There’s certain stereotype in the way men are brought up. They think they’re meant to carry on all the outside/official work and women are supposed to manage the entire household. Right from the beginning, children should not be differentiated; everyone should take part in family activities and help with household. This will ensure grooming of a gender equal society. We should not curtail women’s aspirations. Our systems and legislations are favourable towards women empowerment. I think men, society and the general public should promote women wherever possible.
