It's reigning women, hallelujah

They’re talented, they’re enterprising and they’re out there – to take on the world, quash stereotypes and offer a leeway for other women to step up their game and grow. Bengaluru is home to a large number of seasoned and fledgling women entrepreneurs. On this International Women’s Day, we get chatty with namma ooru’s Lady Bosses with an eye for the digital, and a heart as big as their vision — leading them to run successful networking spaces via their pro-women initiatives...

“Women’s Wellness-Men not allowed’ is a Facebook Group, started in early 2017 as a response to my chronic pain condition, Peripheral Neuropathy that I developed post-pregnancy. It is a condition where the nerves in one’s hands and feet, start to die, ultimately robbing the person of use and control of those limbs.

On visiting top doctors, all I heard was blanket statements like ‘you are just stressed’, ‘it’s all in your head’ etc. My experiences led me to start this group, where women could share their frustrations with differential treatment,” shares Mishta Roy, a Bengaluru-based graphic designer, who describes herself as a Creative Wellness Curator. Her FB group works towards helping women to regain control of their health. The group amassed over 1,800 global members in less than a year with representation from all corners of the US, Europe, Africa and Asia.  For city entrepreneur Leena Pishe Thomas, it was about making space to uplift women through whatever she did. The founder of a tech portal, Global Technology Interface, is also known for her women empowerment programmes. “Mentoring women who are keen on professional careers, and showing them the way to get a good work-life balance is something I have always done. I’ve also contributed a Women in Innovation conference and theme paper at IIMB as a co-panelist talking about the challenges faced by women. My focus when it comes to women in my organisation is to always create an environment of equal opportunity for men and women. The best thing one can do for women is to make them feel that there is no differentiator truly and they can go after anything they choose,” she adds.

‘App’t for this season: A bunch of city women have taken upon the onus to conjure up an app named Sistah — a women-only help network, slated to launch this month. “It will enable women to support each other on critical issues like domestic violence, sexual abuse, dowry, to universal ones like single parenting and financial independence,” reveals Sakshi Agarwal, one of the founders.  

Sistah will be an invitation-only network. A user will be able to join Sistah only when one or more women send an invitation and verify that the user is a woman. An open network where all the women will be able to see each other’s profile, and chat with each other. Sistah will have a map-based feature. The team is looking for support from people who can fund product development by investing '50,000 or more. Not as charity, but as an investment in return for shares in the company.”   For city entrepreneur Saritha Hegde, the idea of her online group Friday Convent arose to empower women to re-evaluate the conventional care given to them and to demand better. Luckily for Saritha, the group blossomed into a larger entity altogether — just as she envisioned. “While we started the group online, we then set it up as a not for profit trust and have an office. We have also made donations to Vimochana. The idea is to get women to network and support each other while creating opportunities from women from lower income households to be financially independent and have awareness of their rights.”