Politician, Journalist and Film-maker Shazia Ilmi highlighted that it’s her irrepressible spirit that has propelled her in the fight against the feudal patriarchal beliefs. She was in conversation with Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Shrinivas Dempo as part of the theme – Inclusivity, Women and India@2047.
Explaining her battle against stereotyping, Shazia said: “The struggles and the tears and fears make you who you are. It is important to embrace that. It was an extremely tough upbringing…If I can, anyone can; because you would have no idea about how rigid and tough my upbringing was. There were just roles defined about the boundaries of your being.”
Growing up to educate herself in Cardiff and New York with a rebellion attitude, Shazia paid tribute to her mantra of life. “While the bitterness and pain goes away, the memory is there…I want to keep that memory of that pain alive to ensure that no other 10-year-old has to go through that ever.”
Shazia analysed the concerning aspect related to skewed gender ratio and the basic inequality, saying: “Lot more needs to be done…despite the great literacy rate, we continue to see a very adverse sex ratio in Goa.”
Expanding her observation across the business landscape of the country, she added: “The global gender report in 2021 says that women made up 15.9 per cent of the boards of the listed companies in India. But only 8.9 per cent of top management positions are occupied by women in Indian firms.”
Shazia cited the areas of education and opportunities, and noted the case of women in STEM where more women need to wear the entrepreneurs hat. Even in the political system, governance, parties, judiciary – more women in leadership roles are needed for the holistic development of the society, she observed.
Looking up to the efforts that are on towards driving the change, Shazia opined that women-led development is the way to move ahead. “A lot is being done to address this. For the first time, we are not talking about development for women but women-led development,” she asserted.
Shazia appealed to the gathering made up of women dignitaries of GCCI and others, to encourage women from different backgrounds.
Dempo, in his opening remarks, underlined the importance of women inclusivity, saying: “India’s progress is intrinsically tied to the status and empowerment of its women , which is happening to a large extent. Inclusivity for women is not really an option, but an imperative for the nation aspiring to fullfil it’s immense potential.”
Earlier, pointing out the less than desired participation of women in the workforce among other inequalities, Sulakshana Sawant also highlighted the need for right kind of a policymaking at various levels. “I believe that the community participation, society participation is required to bring about this particular change and this is what is going to happen wherein we will have women (sic) and Bharat at 2047. So many kind of discussions are happening around women inclusivity. There are so many programmes run by the government. What we also need to do is that, reach out to the people go to those classes, make them understand the schemes, and see to it their participation is there for the programmes and they avail these facilities. That is what is going to bring about the change,” reflected Sawant.
