Economic independence to destitute women: Shravani Hagargi at TEDxPune
you let me share a story about my friend savithri savithri lives in Islam in a 200 square feet of house inside Hubli Karnataka she is having a three kids a 10 year old five year and one year old her husband was an alcoholic and he never bothered about his kids and their future Savita used to work with four households for cooking cleaning and laundry but she only told her husband that she is working for two houses that took cooking not for cleaning because she knew that her husband would be ashamed by knowing her cleaning other houses savithri was so tired that sometime she has to leave her younger babies to an elder daughter who is just 10 year old savithri used to work day and night and barely made money to support her family after six months savithri husband passed away and she has to face with lot of hardship to take care of her kids her by own self when I met her she was having no self-confidence she was shy quite extremely scared and alone unfortunately this is all too common story in India especially where I'm from Hubli there are millions of women lives in Karnataka have no ability to change their situation they have no ability to provide their kids with the basic facility in my heart I was thinking that what can be done for these women from where to start I thought that after completing my studies I will get a job in an NGO and I will help these women that way but after completing my bachelor's degree I came across with a Deshpande foundation it is situated in Hubli inside Karnataka they support social entrepreneurs this one-day Foundation has become a turning point in my life for the first time I felt that I could do different from a friends instead getting married or getting a job I started thinking after the box I felt that I can prove my dreams to help these women during my fellowship training program I interacted with the many women from slums and rural villages to understand their perspective this allowed me to see their daily routine the fact that they lack decision power the male members of the family make all the decisions and these women are totally dependent on them these women have no ability to change their situation these women are not allowed to work even if they are allowed to work there are no safe and respectful places your chances are better if you are educated what if you are not educated who will employ you I started thinking what is my responsibility how can I contribute back to my society what can be done for these women initially I was thought that something involving microfinance or some form of vocational training will help these women but we quickly realized that this is not the way we wanted to give a women like Savitri the opportunity to realize her true potential and capabilities and employment a sense of belongingness and independence to provide education and lovely hood for their children I believe the key need is empowerment both economically and socially especially in the rural parts the community which is continuously dominated by mail we wanted to create in a sustainable independent enterprise where we can employ these women and give them a social economical independence that's when the idea for providing female security guards safeand 24 bar 7 was born after talking to many people in the community we realized that there is a need there is a need for female security guards we looked at for an unthreatening area our situation where we can deploy these lady guards and we realized that there are tons of situation where client might prefer to have a lady guards such as ladies hostels guest houses schools hospitals and malls at the beginning many people doubted the idea thinking that it could never work we faced a lot of challenges at the time I was only 23 year old and other founders were 25 and 26 also being a woman in a male centric society especially within the profession of security services many men hesitate to work under females it was difficult to convince the people to take us seriously at such a young age many men hesitate to work under females the problem was not the society's reaction to the idea but the mental model of the women that themselves they had these were men were uncomfortable wearing the pan shirt as a uniform because they think that pan shirt are only made for men not for women these difficulties along with many others caused my co-founders to leave this was a make-or-break situation I left alone with the company at the age of 23 with the society telling me that this idea could never work my parents were begging me to leave the company and go back to my studies I was at crossroad but I thought to myself if I want to change anything it had to happen now this is the time if I want to make any change I believe in two words which is now or never my journey has been a challenging one convincing my client that we were able to do this job - losing my partners when we started the venture the support I received from this panda foundation was so amazing they took a huge risk to become our first client in 2009 we started with the nine employees and now we are able to employ 200 plus women and 300 plus total employees and 400 plus are trained by our instructors we are serving over 45 clients in Hubli Darva to a different institutions I have learned in my life that you need to know your passion you need to believe in your passion so that your pray or automatically your priorities will change hurdles make you happy challenges will become your lovely moment problems will never come to you instead you will go to the problem to enjoy the victory here is the sabe 3 from the beginning of the presentation she is working with us as a security guard she is making three times more than the earlier she is working less than before all her three kids are studying sabe three is leading the self-help group in the slums for women and helping them to save money more importantly she has renewed her sense of confidence she is able to go to the bank alone she is providing her kids with a basic facility she is providing her kids with education and livelihood I believe in two words which is made me to achieve at this level is now or never my final message for any young women who want to change the world or anybody who wants to change the world remember now is the time thank you