Learn, Grow and Excel

The weather was turbulent. We were bored and stressed, waiting on the runway to get clearance for take-off. I had missed the initial announcement while settling in my seat. In a very soft and gentle voice, the pilot announced that we were now cleared for take-off but warned us that it would be one-of-a-ride, given the weather conditions and urged us to fasten our seatbelts. The next twenty minutes showed us the excellent skills of the pilot from long years of flying and navigating through tricky weather. We were airborne very gently without much hassle, relieving us. I had teary eyes listening to the gentle voice again. She not only managed to take us off smoothly but her skills and experience at flying assured us that the next nine hours would be smooth. I thanked her silently for her excellent abilities to fly and for breaking the perceptions of everyone around that machines know no gender. Women, for that matter, can do anything if they decide and set their minds. We need more platforms like these to learn, practice and showcase the skills to excel in our chosen fields. We also need encouragement from all walks of life to open our wings and fly high.

He returned from the office in a hurry to freshen up and change. Got the two kids playing outside, cleaned, fed and dressed to leave. Riding on the scooter, they went to pick their mom from the office. The wife closed the day, took leave from her friends & colleagues and walked towards her waiting family. The kids cheered, looking at their mom after a long day. They then rode a short distance dropped their mom for an after-office advanced knowledge class. The father took the kids to the nearby park to play. They returned to the class to pick their mom up. The kids cheered, looking at their mom again. All four rode back to the home happily.

It was 1990 when the middle-class working families in India aspired to learn, grow and improve their careers and lives to support their kid’s future. We need more men and boys today and in the future, like the father in the story, to share household responsibilities. To trust their partner’s abilities and support their dreams. We need more schools and universities to train all young men and women to share the equal burden of running the household. Only then the woman of the house can free themselves up to think, act and achieve their dreams.

I believe that inclusive growth of women from all sections of society is a strong foundation for a brighter tomorrow. We all need to come together. Not only from the IT industry but from all walks of life to empathize, share the burden where possible and find ways out of difficulties that block our growth. We will face unsurmountable challenges like we did in the past, but we all must keep moving forward. There are multiple ways to overcome these challenges, and a healthy ecosystem will surely pave the way for success. We need more platforms where everyone can learn new skills to get trained through mentoring and coaching in their field of interest. We can improve knowledge through continuous education and other vocational forums where women who dropped out of school can pick up learning again. These will help reskilling, employment generation and bring financial independence. Many women still have no access to monetary funds to use for their betterment. Basic financial education with primary education is the need of the hour. The growing digital world has made it easy for anyone to access financial channels irrespective of any educational background.

Secondly, we need help from Governments to organize and manage all the sectors like Indian IT. I feel it is one of the safest and most secure sectors for women to grow and achieve their dreams. We have more than half of the population working in unorganized to semi-organized sectors, which brings challenges to improve. If we can have a uniform rule, safe working environment and practices across the board, that will open up more opportunities for women to give them a safe place to work.

Lastly, we must appreciate that the working duration is limited in many sectors. Soon we will face an aging population where retirement planning for all is inevitable. We still lack a basic understanding of retirements, pension schemes and after-work-life requirements for those outside of government jobs. It is prudent that awareness and adoption of financial policies implemented across-the-board, to allow enough time to plan and save for future needs at the individual level.

By 2060, hopefully, a majority of the hard-to-do physically intensive tasks will be taken by Artificial Intelligence(AI)/Robots. We might only have a limited choice for work based on soft skills or emotional intelligence. Like teaching to an extent, child and elderly care, or more creative and unpredictable tasks, that might not be done by AI by then. The world will then look towards the women of the time to lead them using their natural talent and skills of emotional intelligence. And those women leaders will look at their predecessors and eventually at us for guidance to learn from the decisions we made today and in times to come. They might not appreciate the efforts we take today, the challenges we continue to overcome in our carrier, society and life in general. They will only enjoy the fruits of our hard work and perseverance. Some might even take their necessities for granted, which are luxuries for many today. But at no point in time, we must give them a reason to feel sad or demotivated looking back at our decisions and actions of today. Since any decisions of theirs will have a lasting impact on them and the generations to come.

Let’s us come together to build an ecosystem for today, tomorrow and times to come, to allow everyone to learn, grow and excel.