Think Big, Lead Bold | Dr. Hina Shah | TEDxPrahladnagar Women

The Need for Women Entrepreneurs in India

• India is expected to become a superpower soon, with 50% of the population being women who can contribute to the country's growth and development if given the chance (26s).
• The Indian economy is based on two aspects: agriculture and industry, with agriculture being the primary sector where women contribute significantly as laborers and sometimes as farmers (58s).
• In the industrial sector, women make up only 12% of the workforce in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and large enterprises (1m47s).
• Despite celebrating men's empowerment, economic development, health development, and education, the statistics show a different story, with women's participation being very low (2m4s).
• There is a need to convert women into entrepreneurs, and efforts have been made to start this activity, but the definition of empowerment is different, and it requires investing in small and micro enterprises (2m33s).
• In India, the industrial sector was registering each and every industry, and this is called registered industrial activities, but women's units were not being registered due to biases (3m4s).
• A special training program was started for women, as India didn't have such programs earlier, to empower them and increase their participation in the economy (3m31s).
• In order to become an entrepreneur, a woman had to compete with men to get loans, product finance, and land to build assets and industrial estates, and even then, there were no women-oriented facilities available (3m38s).
• The lack of facilities for women, such as toilets, was a significant issue, and research was conducted to understand the requirements of women in this regard (3m53s).
• A study was conducted by the Foundation One of the American companies to research and understand the needs of women, and it was found that the majority of women were accidental entrepreneurs who started selling products after receiving a calculator and some jewelry from Jaipur (4m8s).
• These women would sell vegetables and other things in their community, but there was no single entrepreneur who developed by themselves, and most were developed by someone else, such as Mrs. Moraji (4m38s).
• The men in the family would often retire and give the women the company, but this was not considered the first generation of entrepreneurs because the family gave them the company (5m2s).
• It was very difficult to develop women entrepreneurs due to socialization patterns, and education systems did not teach entrepreneurship, even for men (5m17s).
• The education system only taught men to study well, get good grades, and get into engineering and medicine, and this pattern still exists today (5m38s).

Breaking Societal Norms and Empowering Women

• Socialization patterns, such as the one experienced by the speaker's grandmother and mother, emphasized the importance of getting married and having children, and this was considered the ultimate life dream (5m50s).
• However, the speaker did not tell her children that they had to get married and have children, instead, she told them that they were human beings with equal rights to dream and do whatever they wanted (6m15s).
• The speaker emphasized that there should be no taboos or restrictions on women, and they should be able to pursue their dreams and ambitions without any limitations (6m34s).
• A group of 25 women were developed to start a business in the field of ohm meters, multimeters, miniature motors, latex, rubber thread, bulbs, and armatures, and these women were educated from standard 10 to PhD, which was unbelievable to the government of Gujarat and the central government's science and technology ministry (6m41s).
• The government of Gujarat and the central government's science and technology ministry asked to conduct a special program for science and technical graduates to become entrepreneurs, and four of them got the national award (7m15s).
• If you educate them, you can empower them, and this empowerment makes men and women earn up to 2-3 lakhs per month, and many women who were empowered became successful and got the status (7m36s).

Early Life and Education

• The story begins with being born and brought up in Jamshedpur, also known as Tata city, which was pioneered by Jamsetji Tata, who began the Jamshedpur steel city plant in two acres of land (8m29s).
• Jamsetji Tata had a bigger vision to become a world-class entrepreneur, and things have changed since then (8m57s).
• The eldest of the siblings, with a brother one year younger and another two months younger, was told by their mother to stand near the gate and walk straight to school, which was 500 meters, half a kilometer away (9m23s).
• The mother's influence played a significant role in shaping the individual's life, as she was the one who encouraged independence and self-reliance from a young age, teaching the importance of taking initiative and making decisions on one's own (10m4s).
• Growing up, the individual's parents made decisions for them, dictating what they would study and which college they would attend, but the mother's approach was different, allowing the individual to develop decision-making skills and set goals (10m19s).
• The individual's brother was sent to a missionary school, while they were enrolled in an ordinary school, with the father citing the reason as the individual being a girl (10m45s).
• Despite facing gender-based discrimination, the individual's education was not compromised, and they went on to complete their matriculation and later studied in a school that instilled courage and strength (11m22s).
• The individual believes that gender discrimination is not inherently bad, as long as one knows how to deal with it, and recalls a childhood incident where their mother encouraged them to develop goal-making and decision-making skills (11m44s).
• The individual's childhood was marked by a mix of freedom and restrictions, but they eventually went on to college, where they excelled academically, earning flying colors and high marks (12m12s).

Marriage, Challenges, and Early Entrepreneurial Experiences

• Despite facing discrimination and discouragement, the individual persevered and continued their education, eventually falling in love with a boy in college (12m49s).
• A person was told that if their husband says it's day, they should say it's day, even if it's night, and if he says it's night, they should say it's night, even if it's day, and they should listen to everything he says, which led to the realization that there are no husbands if you are not married, so one shouldn't wait for a husband to achieve their goals (13m49s).
• The person got married and became an uneducated daughter-in-law, expected to cook and look after the house, which wasn't their dream, but they told their husband it's okay if he accepts it (14m19s).
• The husband suggested the person come to his office and find something to do, which led to the person learning lessons about small-scale industries and how to manage with materials, marketing, laborers, and people around them (14m43s).
• The person learned how to create market needs and manage with the people around them, and if they tell their story, it would be about the days when their startup entrepreneurs had innovative products that would be sold in the market, but it's not happening, with a success rate of only 1.5% (15m9s).
• The reason for this low success rate is that the education system in society has not empowered people, and one lesson learned is that one has to learn how to manage small enterprises, which the person did, and they had lots of problems with their husband (15m33s).
• A product was not selling in the market, and the reason was that it was not a good product, and the person in charge was not a good salesman because a good salesman can sell anything in the market (15m50s).
• This experience taught a lesson in entrepreneurship, and a decision was made to start a new factory and run it successfully (16m7s).
• To start the factory, a loan was applied for from the Gujarat Finance Corporation, but they said no because the applicant was a woman without a male partner (16m23s).
• The applicant then asked her brother to become her partner, and he agreed, and the loan was approved (16m33s).
• However, the Gujarat Finance Corporation later asked the brother to increase his stake to 70%, leaving the sister with 30%, which was a shocking and unfair demand (16m51s).
• The project was shelved due to the bank's refusal to provide working capital, and in the meantime, the husband, brother, and other partners started another factory without even telling the sister (17m11s).
• Despite these setbacks, the sister decided to start her business, and she began making nightwear and had a retail outlet, which was successful and profitable (17m23s).

Lessons in Entrepreneurship and Empowerment

• This experience taught valuable lessons about entrepreneurship, including the importance of knowledge, skills, and behavior, especially for women who need to set goals, solve problems, and continuously feel like winners and self-confident (17m45s).
• The key takeaway is that women can achieve their goals and succeed in business, and no one can stop them if they have the confidence and determination to do so (17m56s).

Developing and Implementing a Course for Women Entrepreneurs

• A course was designed to empower women, and if 100 women are trained, 85-95 businesses will start, which is not the result of even our colleges or the World Bank, United Nations, Commonwealth Secretariat, or any other organization (18m8s).
• The course became so powerful that it was used in 70 countries, from Indonesia to Japan to Laos to Cambodia to Thailand, because these countries were backward in the area of women entrepreneurship and did not have any policies for it (18m29s).
• In Indonesia, there is a planning commission, and a strategy was developed for the country, which was recognized by the Commonwealth country (19m10s).
• A manual was created, and a large number of people were trained with it, realizing the need to have an organization, which led to the start of Entrepreneur Development International Centre for Entrepreneur and Career Development (19m22s).
• The organization was recognized as a center of excellence by the United Nations and the Indian government, and it had the opportunity to work with them (19m30s).

Impact and Recognition of the Entrepreneurship Program

• The organization worked with tribal women, rural women, and rural women are now earning 80,000 to 1 lakh rupees a month because of empowerment (19m50s).
• Empowerment means that women have not stopped being mothers and wives, but they can still earn power, and it is not necessary to give up their status as mothers and wives (20m4s).
• In India, there is a different perspective on gender sensitization, and it is not about husbands cleaning utensils and wives smoking, but rather about maintaining harmony in the family (20m27s).
• India is a wonderful country, and it wants women to remain mothers and wives, but if 10% of women become empowered, they will contribute to the country's development (20m38s).
• India's economy can be imagined as a state where investing in the economy trains more than 1 lakh of entrepreneurs, and 50 lakh of women have already been employed (20m52s).
• At an international level, millions of people are impacted because a large number of faculty and trainers have been trained, and they have become entrepreneurs (21m8s).

The Benefits of Economic Empowerment for Women

• If women become economically empowered, they can plan their family, bring their children to functions, and do anything they want because they are economically empowered (21m47s).
• Women should enjoy the status of being economically empowered and being on their own, allowing them to make their own decisions and live their lives as they want (21m44s).
• Economically empowered women can love their family, love their children, and live their lives without being told they don't know anything, even at the age of 100 (21m30s).