Speaking Up For Women
Minal Bajaj, who received the Anita Parikh Award for Empowerment of Women at RCB, spoke on: Beyond Women Empowerment
We are all born empowered. The difference lies in how conducive our environment is in allowing each of us the liberty to comprehend that empowerment, sharpen it and exercise it in our daily lives. I believe I was born empowered and I was fortunate to receive encouragement and support from my family to apply it.
I started working much later in life, after fulfilling my duties as a mother and daughter in law, but life had been preparing me for my responsibilities since a young age. I grew up in Calcutta and came to Bombay after marriage. In Calcutta, I had been part of a big, typical, conservative and orthodox Marwadi family. There were a lot of restrictions on us but my father was different. He was radical in his thinking and this made him the black sheep. He ensured that my mother completed her education and encouraged her to take responsibilities outside the comfort of her home. Cheered by my father, my mother dived into volunteer work. It didn’t matter to him that he had five daughters and no sons. As a father, he empowered his daughters to think, to take decisions and maneuver the world on their own terms without a fear of societal disapproval.
I was exposed to my parents’ unparalleled dedication and commitment to Mother Teresa. A lasting memory of my childhood, for instance, is the preparation of goodies packets for recuperating soldiers of 1971 War. When I married the Bajaj family, therefore, the family’s long legacy of constructive work didn’t overwhelm me. Instead, I found myself inspired by the family’s adherence to the Gandhian principles of simple living and high thinking. The sacrifices and perseverance of my grandparents in law, Shri Jamnalal Bajaj and Shrimati Jankidevi Bajaj in bringing about real change. While Dadaji passed away decades ago I was initiated in to the family, sadly six months after Dadiji’s death. Till this day I feel the timing was unfortunate and I missed out terribly on a rare opportunity.
Jis waqt Mumbai mein Swaraj ki ladai hui, toh Gandhiji ne striyon ko aajad kar diya, ki sab aao ladaai mein. Toh stri itni shaktishali nikli, padhi nahi, likhi nahi, bacche-gharbaar sab khule karke nikal aayi…
Interview by Jankidevi Bajaj, on the role of women during the freedom struggle
Similarly, the values of justice and ethics institutionalised by my father-in-law, Shri Ramkrishna Bajaj, are well known. The long hours of talking to him and learning from him while I cared for this mild-tempered visionary during his last years has left a deep impact upon me. In their own amazing way, these stalwarts gave my life direction. I shall be indebted to them forever. But it was the joint family system, a dwindling institution today, which taught me vital lessons in leadership and people management.
I learnt my first lessons in negotiating with seniors in tricky and sometimes trivial situations. I learnt to withhold my thinking when required and engage with new perspective, put forward my point without being discourteous to elders. I am not a rebel anyway, I believe in the security and support of everyone around me. I have always followed the family’s value system, however strict it may seem.
To my absolute delight, I was able to align everyone to my vision during my year as IMC Ladies Wing President despite my initial doubts. I was offered the President of IMC Ladies Wing as my husband Mr Niraj Bajaj was the President of the main chamber. I accepted the role with trepidation but soon found my footing.
During my tenure, we organised various activities focusing on the theme Beyond Woman Empowerment, celebrating the complete woman. Over 40 programmes organised during the year witnessed moments and opportunities to understand the distress and ecstasy and celebrate the successes of women from various walks of life. It was my first big opportunity and it gave me the confidence that I would need as I prepared myself for a larger role. You must appreciate that dealing with thousands of women is no mean feat at all. Thus, when the time came to select an able person to steer the Jamnalal Bajaj foundation, the family entrusted me with the responsibility.
Since its inception in 1977, the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation has promoted Gandhiji’s programme on rural India and honoured people who have aligned themselves with the Foundation’s philosophy and causes. For decades, Shi Ramkrishna Bajaj and later Shri Rahul Bajaj, along with the Board of Trustees, nurtured the activities of the Foundation. When I took on the job, Rahil bhaiyya told me, “No stain should come on Shri Jamnalal’s name.” Everyday, as I go about my duties, his words guide me in maintaining the sanctity of Dadaji’s legacy. Perhaps it is for this reason that every year, after receiving nationwide nominations for the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation, I, along with the team set out to review the work done by the nominees.
What started as a cautionary step to ensure the integrity of the awards, today, is an annual routine that I horoughly
enjoy and in fact look forward to. Nothing to me is as satisfying and humbling as the first-hand experience of grassroot level work done. The process has taken me to hundred different places, spanning the length and the breadth of the country, from Leh to Kerala, from Meghalaya to Gujarat including sensitive places like Bastar in Chhattisgarh.
Today, I am actively involved in the various initiatives of the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation as its Honorary Director since 2009. My time is divided between looking for various potential developmental projects to be funded and administrative work pertaining to the awards such as policy matters, overall management, screening the nomination, supporting the selection committee and the council of advisors in the nomination shortlisting and selection process respectively. Or planning the publicity and promotional campaign or directing the overall arrangement of the function.
Back home, however, there was something that bothered me. Though Mumbai is popularly known as a city that shelters and feeds all, it is the least homogeneous urban space in our country. The wide disparity and the standard of living saddened me and prompted me to create a platform to elevate the quality of life of the slum women in South Mumbai. With positive support from family, this materialised into ‘Hamara Sapna’, part of Jamnalal Bajaj Seva trust in February 2012, an initiative conceptualised and designed to bring in transformational change in the lives of marginalised women.
At Hamara Sapna, our aim is to provide holistic exposure to women bringing a smile on their faces and calmness within. We didn’t want to focus on just teaching them new skills but to also develop their thinking. Like home makers and mothers all over the world have toiled hard to cater to the needs of their family, send their kids to good schools in order to give them a better life. Yet, this has resulted in their families and children disrespecting their mothers due to lack of knowledge and exposure.
I took them to Wardha, our family home which was a centre of the National Freedom Movement, near Nagpur, for a day. Special arrangements were made to ensure that they are comfortable. The hospitality and care that was extended to them was a shocking novelty to most. Most of them told me that, for the first time in their life someone had asked them if everyone was okay and if they are comfortable.
The first centre of Hamara Sapna opened in Tardeo in a busy locality with a concentration of lower middle class housing. The centre opened to cater to marginalized women with the aim of having a safe place for them away from home. Hamara Sapna is a life-long platform, a sort of maayka for women. We use a holistic approach at Hamara Sapna to expose women to dance therapy, counseling, marketing and finance along with our core activities of Yoga, English speaking, self-defense, computers and tailoring and much, much more. Experts from different walks of life are invited to share their stories of success and challenges that they face while achieving their goals. These are meant to be eye-openers for the women that anything is possible if one is ready to accept the challenges.
Our beneficiaries tend to identify with different experiences and situations of the speakers. They become the support system in their own way and give them the strength and solutions to many of the challenges that they face in life. To give you an example, a couple of weeks ago we had a special staging of Eve Enslers’ Vagina monologues brought to India by Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal and Dolly Thakore for the women of the centres. Anyone who has seen the play knows that it is a bold disposition that isn’t suitable for the inhibited, yet not a single woman squirmed in the seat. The brutal honesty of the play resonated with these women and the familiarity of the abuse stirred their naive minds. It was therapeutic in equal measure for both the women of the centre and the actors who were inundated by outrageous questions from the audience.
When you want to make a difference, numbers don’t matter. Since it was established in 2012, we have helped about a thousand women. Currently, we have about 300 women from the age group of 25 to 40. The focus is on quality over quantity. The smaller group ensures deeper penetration. The children of one of the ladies from the slums once told me: ‘All these years, we had been telling our mother that we have a laptop at home, do something with it. But she used to just cook and mop. Now, all of a sudden, since she has started to come to Hamara Sapna, she has been taking out all our old grammar books from school because she wants to learn. She has also asked us to teach her Power Point because she wants to be ahead in computer class.’’
So, suddenly, these children – themselves MBA from top colleges such as Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management and Welingkars – who till recently were embarrassed, are filled with pride. There are many such examples. Our beneficiaries today work as nannies at expats, specialised in GST or work at the police station analysing basic data.
Yet another lady has started her own catering business and her growing confidence is evident from the fact that now she wants to expand with the help of collaboration.
It gives me immense satisfaction that Hamara Sapna has been able to create an environment of nurturing. The centre has handled the women in a crucial phase of their lives when they needed guidance and encouragement. On my part, I look forward to learning and growing with the women and continue to give them newer possibilities and ideas. Due to my multifaceted role in the Bajaj family, my involvement now has extended beyond the foundation to sports, arts and cultural initiatives. It was an honour to be involved in every stage of restoration of the Bhau Daji Lad Museum. More recently, though, my involvement in the heritage sphere has deepened with the launch of the Bajaj family heritage, a modern, accessible archive chronicling the glorious Bajaj family history.
My husband’s association with the Ultimate Table Tennis league and the Olympic Gold Quest which supports the Indian athlete to compete in this ultimate sporting event has helped me to diversify my body of work further. An avid sports fan from my younger days, my time is now taken up extensively towards the same although I play behind the scenes more. While I acknowledge the momentous role played by my family in my journey, I would also like to take this opportunity to extend my gratitude to my husband for his constant support and encouragement in my endeavours. When I married Niraj at the age of 20, he was already an accomplished sportsman with an enviable fan following. I may have donned several diverse hats but my most challenging role has been the one where I have played the wife of a super star!
