ETGBS 2019: Women should own property, earn enough to have control in the household

Panel was of the view that women in power could empathise with the struggle of single women to stay on rent and travel at night.
Women make family the fulcrum of their personal journey because they are largehearted, and they could succeed if they are legally and economically empowered, textile minister Smriti Irani said at the Global Business Summit.

Irani was speaking on Saturday at a panel discussion, ‘Create, nurture and transform: the better half’, at the GBS. The panel also included Faye D’Souza, executive editor of Mirror Now; Sairee Chahal, founder of Sheroes India; entrepreneur Ananya Birla; lawyer Flavia Agnes; Priyanka Gill, founder of website POPxo; fashion designer Ritu Kumar and model Elena Fernandes. The session was moderated by Lulu Raghavan, managing director of Landor.

“India is a difficult place to live for women,” said D’Souza. When there are more woman journalists, women’s problems could be looked at in a clearer way. But, “it’s one thing to get in, and another to be heard,” she said.

Women in power could empathise with the struggle of single women to rent and travel at night, the panel viewed.


Irani, too, spoke of the time she had travelled to Mumbai to be part of the film industry as a single woman. She said stories of women who had struggled and succeeded should be celebrated.

Agnes spoke of the time she was in an abusive marriage while being part of a Roman Catholic conservative society in the 1970s. “I was told I could do nothing, it was my destiny.” She said she realised she would “perish” if she did not get out.

She said changing the word from “victim” to “survivor” wasn’t enough until people understood how a victim became a survivor. “It’s a legal journey,” she said. She also said women earning wasn’t enough for them to have control in the household — they needed to own property.

Birla, who runs a microfinance company for women, said lending to women made business sense as they took loans for capital, not consumption.


Irani also spoke of women’s capacity for entrepreneurship. Women, she said, made up 73% of the beneficiaries under the Mudra Yojana, which provides loans for micro and small enterprises.

Gill said her challenges were the same as any entrepreneur, and she did not like being classified as a female entrepreneur.

Kumar, speaking of her work with handicraft artisans, said it was idealistic to tell people, especially in rural areas, to “be equal” as a concept. But it would only happen when women start earning, she said.

Chahal said although women had challenges, such as access to healthcare, technological innovation could help solve these issues.

Fernandes said it was no longer about just women, but also about recognising groups like transgenders. Social media could be used to make people aware, she suggested.