 a very warm welcome to the first session of the one-way national seminar on the being women in decision-making roles in corporates. We have, amongst us, four very distinguished speakers to deliver their insights and address the gathering on this occasion. May I now take the opportunity to invite on the dais Professor Chandrana Goswami, Director of Lifeline Technology's OPC Private Limited, and former Professor of the Department of Business Administration at the School University, Shri Mati Pakori Chetia, APS, Additional SP, Deepakar, Dr. Shri Panam B. Gowar, Professor Nayan Sharma Sir, and Professor Joy D. Gowar Sir, the moderator of this session. I would like to take this opportunity to give a formal introduction to all our four distinguished speakers. Professor Chandrana Goswami is the former Dean of the School of Management Sciences at Kishore University. She was also the Dean of the Academic Education of the Children's University. Professor Goswami did her MBA and PhD from the Mahati University and was a British Shredding Fellow in 2004. She has gone as an art member to several universities and colleges across India. She is involved with teaching and research at D.H.K. University and has over 30 years of academic experience. She has produced nine PhDs so far. Professor Goswami acts as a resource person to the faculty development programs conducted by different universities and colleges. In 2019, she attends a leadership for academicians program sponsored by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, where one group of training was in Penn State University in the US. She was also selected for a Fulbright program in the USA last year. She is also a senior certified professional coach. D.H.K. University has granted her permission to launch her OPC that will offer life-saving related services. Professor Goswami is currently director of Lifeline Technologies OPC Pride of India Limited. Shrimati Papuri Chetya is a distinguished Assam Police Officer. Shrimati Chetya is presently the additional superintendent of Police Assam Police District. She was additional superintendent of Police at Special Branch headquarters Kaniyipara. As a police officer, she has served at different capacities and has enormously contributed to the law and order of the state. She has served as the deputy superintendent of Police in Pohangam, Chirang and Moriga districts, before joining the Bureau of Investigation of Economic Offences of Assam Police. For her excellent and extremely dedicated service to the cause of law and order, Peace and Harmony. She has been the recipient of DGP Silverman. We welcome you, ma'am. Dr. Shri Parnam Vibhava has 33 years of experience in management, elevation and in small and medium enterprise development, with a trust on entrepreneurship and livelihood promotion. She has also extensive experience in action research and projects relating to development of livelihood clusters, specifically in the northeastern region of India. Since the last three years, she has been actively involved in facilitating creation of a startup ecosystem in Assam and has been regularly mentoring and hand-holding existing and potential startups in opportunity guidance and development. Dr. Bhoba has represented North East India in various international forums and lead business dedications globally. She has also represented the country as a speaker in international conferences in countries like Colombia and Malaysia. She has regularly provided academic and consultancy support to many departments of all major universities of Assam, like Qatar Institute of Social Sciences, National Institute of Rural Development and Assam Administrative Staff College. Dr. Bhoba is a member of the Board of Management of the School of Vocational Education Eno, the North East Network, the Cancer Research Foundation, etc. We welcome you, ma'am. We also have amongst us Professor Nipetra and Sorma. Professor Sorma is serving as professor in management in Krishna Pantokondi University, Guwahati since April 19, 2016. Prior to joining KKHSU, Professor Sorma served as director and ONGC chair professor of Assam Institute of Management. He was awarded a PhD degree by Guwahati University in 2000 for the thesis entitled, Role of Consumer Cooperatives of Assam in Rural Marketing and Analytical Study. He is an MBA with specialization in Marketing Management and Personal Management from Guwahati University. Prior to joining the Assam Institute of Management in 1990, SIR had worked in National Institute of Rural Development, North East Regional Centre as Research Supervisor and supervised an evaluation study of family welfare programs in 11 districts of Assam. He was also associated with the Department of Commons, Guwahati University, Teshkur University and Centre for Distance Education, Non-Distance Legal University, Shibam. We welcome you, Sorma. I would now like to request Professor Jolly Boran, director Kujapumatriya School of Social Sciences, to moderate this session. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good morning. And welcome to the first technical session of this conference, National Center on Women in Decision Making Duel in Cooperation. Already, we have an excellent number of sessions where we have two speakers who actually sort of set the tone for this process, raised some of the questions which will be followed up in this session as well. What I intend to do is something like this, that probably I will request the speakers to present their views initially for, say, about 15-20 minutes, because we have roughly one and a half hours time with us at 11.30, so we can go up to one. Then, I will open the floor for interaction. You can, you know, interact with and then also interact with the speakers on the themes they have spoken about. And if you'd like to, then I will try to sort of sum up the discussion and also present some of my thoughts on the theme and also the questions which will be raised by the speakers. I guess that probably we have four core themes to discuss in this session. If I may say so, it's a little bit more specific, but probably it's not the themes that we have to follow. The one is the status entrance of women in the conference, because this was raised by the two speakers in the inaugural session. What is exactly the status, what are the trends, whether we are improving, and if we are improving, then where we are improving, where we are not, is it across the board, across the sectors, or specifically to some sector, yet some of these sectors are completely excluded from those in this participation. So that's one. The second theme probably can be regarding the, after the speakers, we can go forward. Why women are required in the decision-making? What are the reasons that we want that women to be in the decision-making role? Normally in the conference, of course, this is the theme of the conference, but at the same time, in other spheres as well. So that's another engagement that we can have. The third broad theme we can think of is about what prevents women in participation, participating in these areas. What factors, why women are not sort of given a chance, opportunity to come into some of the areas, why they are excluded, denied, deprived of the sort of decision-making role in those sectors. So that can be another theme that we can discuss. And lastly, probably we can also deliberate on that what could be done which will allow women to be more engaged in decision-making roles in different spheres. I think that will sort of give a wholesome treat to the discussion. And therefore, I suggest these broad four themes, the present status and trends. The second theme will be the why is it required. Third, what prevents women from taking a lead role in the decision-making process and what can be done to ensure and encourage the women's participation. I think if we can limit this thing, then it will be sort of, you know, it will be easy for us to be engaged with the team. And of course, the speakers will be having their own kind of liberty to digress and then go into other areas of discussion as well. So I will be presenting my views on these four themes and this at the last. So with this introduction to the panel, I invite Madam Prof. Rana Vaidu to present our things. She will be giving a presentation. So you have to see the presentation as well. Okay, please. Ma'am, we would like to offer our thanks to you through a small felicitation. I would like to request my colleagues at least come forward and felicitate Professor Chandranagoswamy. We would also like to offer our felicitation to Dr. Shri Varanmuraman. I would like to request Dr. Ornima Mora and Dr. Chayankaran to come forward and felicitate Dr. Tovaran. Next, we would like to offer our felicitation to Shimodi Pakore Chettian. I would like to request Dr. Indra Niteka and Sudeshna Choudhury. We would also like to offer a felicitation to Prof. N. N. Chomasar. I would like to request Dr. Ornima Mora and Dr. Chayankaran to offer the felicitation. Next, we would like to offer our felicitation to the moderator of this session, Prof. Chayankaran. I would like to request Sudeshna Choudhury and Dr. Indra Niteka to do the same. First, Prof. Morswamy Nand to deliver her presentation. Thank you. So, good afternoon everybody. Thank you, Vice Chancellor Sir and the members of KK Handing State Open University for your invitation. And it is a topic, it's one of my big topics. I'm so fond of it. In the talk of women and women empowerment by jumping. So, here I am to share a view of my thoughts. This is a disclaimer. No two women are similar and no two stories are same. I think Nandita, I have also mentioned that in the movie. So, therefore, we don't have a common prescription for you as to what if, you know, sensitivity is a carrier progression for you. And we have to be creative in charting our path. That I have learned from my experience. Creativity, I mean, different kind of creativity you have to think of. Forget all social conditioning and all that stuff. You know, we, you and me, all, we've undergone that social conditioning as, you know, in our childhood, like, you know, how we should conduct ourselves. I was told, you know, even Takam ka Dahan meaning, kind of, doesn't look nice. And then I was also told, why women Why do you talk so much? And then I, we were also told what our capabilities are and what is expected from being as a girl and a lady and all that. But thankfully I grew up in an environment where all that was not really so much, so much there. It was there a little bit, but I could force my way out. But these set of beliefs that remain in our minds and they dictate our actions and we are not being aware of it. If the conditioning was positive and affirmative, it helps us. But then, you know, if it doesn't match the conditioning that we got and what is required in the workplace, then there's a whole lot of discomfort that we face. And there is conflict. And in this start-up for, I think most women give out their jobs. Best part is that we have education, we have the skillset. So getting a job is not very difficult. You know, we manage to get a job, but the difficulty comes a little later. Some obstacles come and they are very specific to women. These are some of the challenges that we are all familiar with. You also know about all that. Marriage is the one to get married or not to get married. Please understand, you get married. There are going to be some issues. I have seen women not having a stable job because she opted to follow her husband whenever he was posted. I respect that choice. It is a choice that she is making. And then also, there are smart women. That also I have seen that whenever this husband is posted, they will try to find out some kind of any news. Unless we will not get a permanent job, but something or the other. So what happens? In a stand-up kind of CG grows. It is important to keep the CG growing. So the CG grows and in the future, it helps in recruitment. Or you use this opportunity to upgrade yourself. Now, it is very easy. You know, you have so much of online stuff. But it is easy to do that. So, if you take a choice to follow your husband, you can still do something about yourself. Then after marriage, you will get married. So, on one hand, this year is very biologically proxistic in a way. And on the other hand, oh, I want a little bundle of joy. Now, these, you know, they are in conflict. Professional and personal, they are not that of a war. You say, no, mother won't. There are people who will tell you how bad you are. Isn't that right? No. And you say, yes, no mother won't. Nobody will come to help you. You have to take care of the baby on your own only. So, can you take a pause out there? Those are people who, I think, evolve under the same story. You do not have a person who will take care of the child, somebody that you can trust. And precious are also not available. So, after university, precious. And, oh, very nice. Very nice. Please put it in words to also behind one. And under this, you know, we take the buckle down. Very natural. And then, of course, it will result in beating. This is the statistics which I got, which says that the female labor force participation rate has gone up by 4.2%. And it is 37%. That is one positive side. But there is another downside from another study. It is talking of the entirely gender gap. It means that if you are in the age group of 15 to 64, in the age group, how many of them are working in the workforce? 70.1% of men are there in the workforce. And it's only 19.2% of babies. And what struck me most is that it seems in the 90s it was 40%. And this is an area of research, if you want to take it up. For female participation, if it was 40% in the 90s, 20, 23, why shouldn't it be 90.2%? It's very disturbing. So one pushes a woman to place. Toxic work culture, bordering on sexual harassment may not really direct sexual harassment. All of my microaggressions, biases, all these, you know, they make us feel that it's not worse for me. And I have heard of this personally. That this lady is there. Last year's performance was damn good. So going by that, her annual improvement should have been very high. It's an incentive of whatever they did. But they gave her a lower one. And she was really, you know, kind of depressed. Why? Answered, I gave her. Because they told her maternity leave. They will be paying you for six months without doing any work. I think that's the only thought process out there. And why there are efforts to retain efficient change? Efficient women, you know, especially this motherhood kind of a case, nobody leaves that much of effort. Given all these stories, bright side I would like to share stories of these ladies. I have read their books and I am so kind of impressed. But I don't know what they have done and how they have gone about. You can identify them, no? Arundhati Patnacharya. First and this is Sheryl Sandberg. So let's start with Arundhati Patnacharya. Do you know what was her degree? What she must have studied? In any case, English for you, Banker was the chairman of SBI. So please don't underestimate yourself. English postgraduate, she joined State Bank of India. Not married, had a child with learning disability. How much more problem do you want to realize? No? And on top of that, they are transferred, no? They will transfer you here at their age, two years, three years. All right. Please read her book, The Way She Handled Union Issues. It's a very great kind of, without losing her cool, she is doing it. But never for a moment, quitting was an option. Never for a moment. And she acknowledges in a biography that it was her support system of family and friends that allowed her to continue working. This is a very important learning. Even in my career, it was family, friends, neighborhood aunties, believe me, I left no one, kind of, asked for it as a main requirement. Indra Lui, CEO of PepsiCo. She also took up all work-related challenges with a never-said-eye attitude. In her book, she talks of balancing, journey, compromising, why maintaining relationships and responsibilities. Why did she join PepsiCo? All other things remain in concept, because those girls who are home, husband's officers also nearby. See, same heart process like us. And she also wrestled with the conflicts of a working mother. Her biography also mentions that same kind of a support system. Sharon Sandberg. She talks about how women don't feel the necessity to ask for equal compensation or for betterment of benefits and all. You know, we really can't ask. When I joined this school university, I had two small kids. They had to be taught one to the school, one to the fresh. It was only one professor who told me why didn't you ask for a school bus? Every university provides school bus. If you would not have told me that, I would not have known the whole class. Right? And her case was quite horrible. There are places, offices she had to visit. No ladies possible also. And she mentions this point, which I find very important and very useful. She says that we need to get rid of our internal barriers that are within us because of the social conditioning. Similarly, I think these biographies, all of them were pretty good. Pretty was never an option for them. And they all created support systems to facilitate this work-life balance. They had supported spouses. Biographies supported spouses don't come in packages. You have to create it. Spouses will be there. Spouses will be there. But supported spouses learn really how to create their supported spouse. And they found creative ways to manage work and family they asked for help they required. And they all set a strong movement apart. You know, grid plays a real out here. And since I'm using this word grid duty all the time, so I've put in the definition of sound here. So this is a personality trait possessed by individuals who demonstrate passion and perseverance towards the goal, despite being confronted by significant obstacles and distractions. So here we are, ladies, trying to make a career. There are a lot of distractions. You have good in-laws, bad in-laws, good spouse, bad spouse, good children, bad children, normal to be done, what ends and all that. Those are distractions. Even then if you can kind of keep that focus. And those who possess grid are able to self-regulate and postpone their need for positive reinforcement while working diligently on the task. We all like external stimulation. We like when people tell us, oh you are doing a good job on a mindful mother, handling office, handling home and all that. We like that, but don't wait for that. It will not come. If it comes, it's a bonus. Without that also you should be able to push yourself ahead. Self-regulate. Strong woman, I have seen irrespective of the social class, including my maid also. I'm doing the sentence. You know, they think like that. I'm going to work and there will be difficulties. And I will find a way around them. So I'm talking of across all social class. And when you have that kind of a thought in mind, it gives rise to positive feelings which will kind of propel you to work. And of course then your outward behavior will be there. Social conditioning in childhood have led to women having a set of beliefs that the mother is solely responsible for women and children. My mother also, you know, worked as a professor in high school. She also worked and lived home. Work. But then she gives me a home and a marriage. Children are in daughter. You get that? Yes. So that is how we treat them. But it is not the case. It's the case of people after Siddha, 50-50. So workload has to be shared. So that is one conditioning. And on the other hand, you're working in a place because you have so much of education, experience, skill set. Your organization has huge expectations from you. Can you see the conflict that is hanging out of yours? This is referred to as a double-blind position. If you can overcome this dilemma, then you will find that you can make a breakthrough and you can discover creative solutions to your problems. Creative is a different level of creativity that you usually have to do. I would just like to share an example here when I was a joint H2 University. No family system out there. No support system. Then no creation also. So what I did one fine day, I called the Rishabh Allah and said, Chalo, wherever I say you have to go, you will go. Looking at signboards, creation, making that kind of. And I found one where they said residential accommodation for nursery going school children or something like that. I just walked into it. So I told the lady, if you can be nursery going school children, you can take my son also, these two years. I literally did that. And it worked. It worked. I forced her to take my son. And then it solved my problem. So other creativity also. Now when the son grows up, creation is going to work, when he comes back from school, I told my neighborhood auntie, second half, two hours, please keep my son with you. And I will kind of pay you for that. She refused the payment, but it solved my problem. So therefore you are free with your different levels. And don't feel bad about it. Please explore your limiting beliefs. These are the beliefs that hold us back. Belief about self, belief about the world, belief about the life in general. So if you have limited belief about your own self, you think along these lines that something is wrong with me. Something is wrong with me. Therefore, you know, I can't work or it's not happening. About the world, you keep on thinking that I hope people are not allowing me to work. I have done an MVP program. I had to go to Ahmedabad. My university refused to give me leave. I was entitled for suddenly leave. I kept on seeking for it. I said, Chalo, you don't give me the suddenly leave. Give him without pay, but I am going. He said, do what you want. But if I would have not insisted, I would have said, the world does not allow me to perform. Generally, limiting belief about life, you feel that things are actually difficult. Now if you think about me, going to Ahmedabad for nine months, giving you small fees at home, it was difficult. It was an individual choice. So if I would have succumbed to that, that would have never happened. If the MVP would have not happened, my criticism would not have happened. Then the league would not have happened. Other things would not have happened. Let's come to women in leadership position. There is a difference between how women and men react to responsibilities given. Given a man a responsibility, he means if he does not go 50% of that whatever the job is, he will take up the responsibility and say, come to women. Even if we know 80% of that, we will say, Oh God, I don't know 20%. I can't do it. After that, please don't sing that song that nobody needs us to work. Or maybe a good word. Some problems we can't solve. So please be careful. A responsibility is given to you. Take it up. You have come so far. You are so educated. What's a big deal? You will learn on the way. So some things that can strengthen our confidence. Exposure. Do whatever work comes to you. One is there for work. You know, go outside the stage. See other conferences and whatever it is. That will enhance your confidence to a great level. Another Indian will be shaking his financial literacy. How many of you find your own income tax victims? Please do. Please do. It's not at all difficult. It's not at all difficult. That's a starting point. And then understand your organization's finances. Where are you working? Is it the cost center? Is it the revenue center? What are the sources of funds? Where are the expenditures happening? You know big deal. Just a little bit of awareness. Then we also have some expectations from the organization. What the organization can do to promote women. First request is that I would request any organization to let go of the stereotypical prejudices regarding women's disability. And we may have to be sensitized. I am so thankful I worked in Keshav University where my colleagues didn't beat the women really kind of. So I got a lot of opportunities out there. Women media support system where they can work in peace and not bother about child care, transportation and all that. I remember I told my boss if you want me to work on holidays give me two days advance notice because I have to prepare the setup at home. Once the setup is prepared I have no problems working on holidays or Sunday or whatever it is. We have government rules regarding maternity leave, caste, child care leave and all that. But please let this not be misused especially child care leave. There are portraits where they have the office gap and the company meals also. That's a big blessing kind of. You don't have to worry about your kitchen. They come in the morning if you have children who have difficulty in meals though your job is done. All your meals are taken care of in the office. And you have a company gap so you don't have to worry about transportation also. This next suggestion is which I found in a NGO I am associated with an NGO called CESTA. This is what they are doing for their women, mothers. They have to do field work so you have to go on homes and all that. They have allowed paying for an attendant to travel with the mother if they are not official doors. Remember it takes a village to raise a child that is what we used to say so that your village and community is disappearing so the organization has to play the role of a village. And at the individual level please raise concerns and ask the organization for the support system. If I would not have asked for a school bus service and I am so happy thank you brother professor. Then the other juniors they would not have also got the anything because the school bus service started and leaving service please leave the schedule sign for the school bus she talks about leaving service we are giving they have their own books and see we have our separate issues alright so there is discussion on there there is we are mentoring on there leadership space training on there so all those things which really help a woman contributing work. Do you work with social conditioning about gender roles please encourage your partners to clear more active role learn delicate responsibilities to make work their support system but keep in mind that they will not get supported as you I think most of us are so state of being they really need our child to have a husband not for both the child is alright alright your husband will not get supported it doesn't matter and ask for help asking for help doesn't mean that you are in any case work-life balance is really important in my case there were also there were some years where I focused on my career children would go to school to minimum you know they would go I was not bothered if they came first to the master secretary class that was not my master is class 8, 8, 9, 10 then the focus comes on them really good work then my career become basic so like that we have to progress even 100% 50-50 normal but when you focus on your career and you for about 50-50 already focus on the whole time for about 50-50 maybe we will talk about it like we go on and thank you very much you can find me on LinkedIn please do try me out there and that's my email id if you want to try everything please do that thank you very much