Balbir Singh
CHANDIGARH, MAY 25, 2019 - Women in India, though excelled in their talent but still underpaid and are deprived of being as leaders. Society and Corporate need to come forward to bridge the gaps between the genders for the national prosperity. Suggests experts during a conference themed on ‘Women Empowerment Leveraging Gender Diversity’ organised by PHD Chamber today at PHD House, Sector 31, Chandigarh. The conference was designed to bring out strategic inputs to leverage gender diversity for the growth of organizations and businesses.
While citing the report reference of Mckinsey, Col Rajiv Bhargava (Retd), Associate Director, ISB, Mohali said women consist of 48.5 percent in the entire Indian population whereas they just contribute 17 percent in the national GDP which need to be geared up realizing their importance and potential. ‘If we support gender parity, nation’s economy by 2025 can be strengthened with 700 billion US Dollars which can match with any better economy of the western world.’ opines Bhargava.
Ms Neetu Prabhakar, Mrs India International 2017 stated that a one woman barely manages to attain leadership in corporate world. “Male world needs to understand and respect their working style also. Women are paid 17 percent lower than male counterpart whereas they need to go with market standards. Salary represents the value of an individual by the institution so one should also fight for the salary right.’ suggested Prabhakar.
Dr. Shailja Beniwal, Assistant Professor, Police Administration & Criminology, MCM DAV College who is also doing research with Chandigarh Police on Crime Against Women (CAW) came out with alarming figures on false reports which bring question marks to Indian judiciary. ‘Women need to utilize these laws judiciously but not to ‘misuse’ as conviction is only 18 percent which means reports are either baseless or false.’ said Beniwal.
Earlier, Vikram Sahgal, Chairman, Chandigarh Chapter, PHD Chamber in his welcome remarks said that in today’s fiercely competitive work environment, talent pool has emerged as the most critical corporate resource. Organizations cannot afford to underutilize nearly half of their workforce. Companies that don’t leverage the potential of women hinder their chances of finding the best leaders while companies with the best record of promoting women outperformed industry revenue by 46 percent.
Amy Chauhan, Guest Service Associate, The Lalit Group of Hotels at Chandigarh while narrating her hardships said women nowadays, must turn technology savvy to enhance their performance. Working while Arti Chaudhary, Independent HR Consultant emphasized that retaining women workforce to job or service is more challenging than offering them job as they need to balance their dual responsibilities - home and office.
Present on the ocassion, Sunil Chawla, DGM, Punjab Infotech said that the strengths of women leaders—to create collaborative relationships, implement strategy with empathy, respond to non-traditional needs and effective mentoring is the key to achieve breakthrough results. Leaders with ability to leverage both the masculine and the feminine characteristics of leadership are crucial to success.
Also present on the occasion, Rajneesh Singh, Managing Partner, Simply HR, Abhay Kapoor, Senior HR Leader, Amazon and Ritu Nag, Director, Tech Mahindra SMART Academy for Healthcare spoke on the relevant subject.The event was supported by MADAME clothing brand.