The Hindu Business Line : Meet highlights women's role in influencing society

"IT is the sketch showing a dead buffalo," said a rustic woman, when shown a map of India and asked to name what she saw. "And remember," said Dr Kiran Bedi, recalling the incident, "this was just 25 km away from the Delhi airport."

That little survey done years ago by an NGO, with which Dr Bedi, the country's legendary woman cop was involved, demonstrated the "darkness" in which millions of Indian women live. Between the highly educated, go-getting women of the cities and those who live in absolute ignorance in the villages, there is a huge chunk of female population that lives in the "twilight zone". These women are literate, but not educated and need to be influenced by the better-offs to come out of the twilight zone, into light, Dr Bedi said here.

She was speaking at the Madras Management Association Women Managers' Convention, held today on the occasion of International Women's Day.

Dr Bedi, who is today an advisor to the UN on civilian police, recalled her struggle as a woman, in trying to balance her professional life with domestic. Family helped a lot— when her daughter was ill and she could not take time off her work ("my subordinates were looking to me for orders"), her mother chipped in and told her, "don't you worry, your home will be taken care of."

While this was on one side, on the other was the burden of being the only woman in an entirely male-dominated workplace. Women can manage such situations by being disciplined themselves, she said.

She said that mothers today ought to consciously raise their children, sons in particular, in such a way that in 2020, the way men look at women would be completely different than it is today.

Speaking earlier, Ms Margret Alva, Congress (I) leader, said that women had the opportunity and the need to influence the society around them. "One does not have to become a face on the screen to be able to influence the society," she said.

Ms Chanda Kochhar, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, spoke of the "ego" the parents have. Every parent wants his or her daughter to outshine all others in education and sports, because he or she could take pride in the daughter's achievement. But when the daughter went to a job, the parent's attitude would be different. Questions such as `do you have to go to this job?', `why are you late home ?' and `why don't you get married?' are asked.

In her speech, Ms Ranjana Kumar, Chairperson, NABARD, said that "peaceful domestic life" was essential for a woman to be successful at work. Women should strive towards that. She said that women need not try to be the "boss" at home also. "Let somebody else take decisions at home," she said.

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