The Indian American Forum (IAF) will honor Ranju Batra, Chair DIWALI STAMP; Kalpana Patel, CEO Unique Comp Inc; Binita Shah, MD, FAAP Distinguished Professor; and, Vandana Sharma, Regional director of AIR INDIA during the sixth annual Outstanding Women’s Achievement Gala.
This program is part of the National Women’s History Month Celebrating Women of Character, Courage, Commitment and Accomplishments. The annual Gala Banquet will be held on Friday March 24, 2017 at Antuns by Minar, 244 West Old Country Road, Hicksville, NY 11801, (516) 681 3300. The Chief Guest and Keynote Speaker at the Gala will be Hon. Madeline Singas, Nassau County District Attorney.
Bollywood actress and entrepreneur Shilpa Shetty-Kundra will attend a women’s empowerment gala in the U.S. The actress earlier in the week took to Twitter, where she shared a poster of the event and also the tour dates. Shetty will be starting her tour from Feb. 26 through March 26.
“Ok America here I come… Starting with Orlando… Looking forward,” Shilpa captioned the poster. The poster also read: “Celebrating Women’s Day and creating awareness for various non-profit organizations.”
In New Jersey, she will headline the Women Empowerment Gala 2017 at Royal Albert’s Palace in Fords, March 5. The event is hosted by Priyanka Shah of Royal Events and Entertainment and Business NJ. The event will honor women achievers Miss New Jersey 2016 Brenna Weick, Mani Kamboj and Rashmee Sharma of Roshnee Media; Pratibha Kataria, principal owner of Allstate, N.J.; Rashmi Gupta, entrepreneur -in-residence and advisor of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Dr. Janhavi Rane, president and CEO of Rane’s Dental Group; Dr. Kavita Gupta, chair of the American India Foundation, Pennsylvania chapter; Usha Krishnakumar, senior partner, New York Life; Dr. Anju Madnani, CEO, Kaaya Med Spa; among others.
On the work front, Shetty-Kundra was last seen on the small screen judging children dance-based reality show “Super Dance” with director Anurag Basu and choreographer Geeta Kapoor. Meanwhile, the Government of India has roped in Shetty-Kundra as a Swachh Bharat brand ambassador. The 41-year-old actress will feature in television and radio campaigns aimed at discouraging people from littering on roads.
Shetty is the latest entrant in the list of the mission’s ambassadors like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Shankar Mahadevan and Sachin Tendulkar. Shilpa Shetty is currently in San Jose, California, with her team attending a couple of events.
“While she kicked off the NBA game in Orlando, the best part of her tour has been her visits to the Google and Facebook offices. When she went to the Google headquarters in San Jose, she was pleasantly surprised when their cafetaria gave her a menu of her film songs. They had put in a lot of effort. Shilpa was taken on a tour of Google and found it to be a city within a city. She was stunned at the kind of facilities that are offered to the employees there. Everything there is free –— from food to spa, massages, dentists and vending machines where you get from the smallest to the biggest of things. Shilpa took a yoga class with some Google employees and taught people in FB how to do the Pranayam.”
(New York, NY – January 26, 2017) The New York Asian Women’s Center, a leader in providing innovative and award-winning multilingual and culturally responsive services to survivors of domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual violence and later in life abuse, officially changed its name to Womankind at a press conference in Manhattan on Tuesday.
“We changed our name to create an identity that speaks to the power of our unique ways of thinking and doing – changing paradigms, building and healing,” said Larry Lee, executive director of Womankind. “And to show that we are more inclusive and transforming. We changed because we had outgrown our name.”
For 35 years, Womankind has helped Asian women and their children rise above trauma and build a path to healing through counseling, safe and confidential emergency housing, immigration and legal services, economic empowerment programs and so much more.
Representatives from the organization also revealed the trailer of a short film by director Benjamin Ross called “Rise Above,” which premiered during the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, last weekend. The virtual reality (VR) film focuses on Brittany, a South Asian youth survivor of sexual violence, and was produced by Oculus’ “VR For Good” initiative.
“It was great to be able to tell my story of abuse through the medium of virtual reality and to be able to share the film through social media,” said Brittany. “I hope the film encourages more people from my generation to report abuse and speak out against violence.” The “VR for Good” initiative will make its rounds through the film festival circuit and will, eventually, be available to view in its entirety on the organization’s recently revamped web site, www.iamwomankind.org. The organization also announced the opening of a new community office in Brooklyn, which will allow advocates to provide services for double the number of victims from that community. The Brooklyn Center makes for a total of THREE community offices and TWO emergency residences that Womankind manages in New York.
Indie rock artist Queen V ended the press conference on a high note by performing her rendition of “Broken Wings,” which is now available on I-tunes. Proceeds from the sales will benefit Womankind.
Chicago: Hina Trivedi, a Gujarati community leader, President of Indo US Lions Club and a Trustee of Federation of Indian Associations Chicago, has now two more feathers in her crown, receiving Prudential Gold Medal from Washington DC and Asian Exemplary Civic Service Award 2016 for her exemplary community services for the past thirty years.
Hina received this Award along with other Asian community members. The award ceremony took place on November 20, 2016 at a dinner banquet at Sheraton Four Points Hotel, 10249 W Irving Park Rd, Schiller Park, IL where more than 200 guests mostly Asian Americans of Chicago & its Suburbs attended the event. The program included musical entertainment and dances. Illinois Secretary of State, Jesse White was the chief guest.
President Barack Obama in his letter addressed to Hina Trivedi congratulated her for getting the President’s Volunteer Services Award for 2016 which was presented to her by Secretary of State, Jesse White during the event.
For the last fifteen years, in the month of November The Asian Humanitarian Award is given annually by the Asian Chronicle TV channel to individuals and families who are cohesive and positive role models for others to emulate, extend numerous civic and community services here and/or in their native countries, and they impact the positive image of Asians in America. Asian Chronicle TV channel is a very famous and popular Asian TV Channel in Chicagoland area.
Asian Chronicle USA, a television program on public access cable broadcast in many suburban communities of Chicagoland, had chosen Hina for the Asian Exemplary Services for being a bridge between India and USA serving the community with her command over seven languages and active association with local service organizations.
Hina Trivedi is the president of Indo US Lions Club, a bridge between India and USA. She is multilingual speaking seven different languages and has served more than thirty years in various communities, serving as translator for citizenship interviews, helping people register to vote and assisting seniors in applying for Medicare or Medicaid, and housing. She tutors children in order for them to be busy and off the streets at CEDA and LIFHITE.
She is also the president of the Federation of Indian Associations, founding member of GOPIO Chicago, Executive Board Member of AIA and MAFS. She has attended many public awareness and social services conferences across the globe and has received many honors and awards from President Barack Obama, Mayor Richard M. Daley, IL Secretary of State Jesse White, Congressman Danny Davis, Representative Jan Schakowsky, and other locally and in India.
In an interview with Asian Media USA after Hina Trivedi received the award she said, “We must care for kids because they are our future, so we must guide them to the right direction and do whatever we can to help them to become proud Americans. It’s an honor and privilege to serve Asian American community. I am always looking for ways to serve our Asian American community and other American community and help improve them. I will continue taking this challenging, exciting, collaborative, and positive attitude to help everyone. I am a cancer survivor. I believe that God gave me a second chance in life, for a reason. Because of this, I am dedicating my life to serving the needy. A smile on the face on a person means a lot to me”.
More than 300 of New York City’s philanthropists, activists and community members from the corporate, finance and entertainment sectors joined forces to raise close to $400,000 at the 34th Anniversary New York Asian Women’s Center (NYAWC) Gala at the Essex House on Thursday night. Themed “Brightening Our Future Together,” the NYAWC Phoenix Awards honored author and journalist Sheryl WuDunn, the first Asian American woman to win a Pulitzer Prize, for her commitment to the plight of abused women and children around the world (WuDunn’s husband, New York Times journalist and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Nicholas Kristof, was also at the event to support the cause).
NYAWC is the largest Asian American domestic violence organization in the country, and for the past 34+ years, it has helped women and their children overcome domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual violence and other forms of abuse by empowering them to govern their own lives. More than 1400 women and children are served by NYAWC every year.
“This is the most money our organization has ever raised at a fundraising gala,” said Board Chair Karen Elizaga. “Our community has been tremendously supportive, especially since we have witnessed 50% growth, both in the size of our staff and budget, in the last year and a half.”
The masters of ceremonies at the gala were Nina Pineda of WABC-TV and Ernabel Demillo of CUNY-TV/Asian American Life. Speakers included gala co-chair Yogesh Bahl and executive director Larry Lee. Special guests and performers were auctioneer Charles Antin, comedian Aparna Nancherla and indie rock artist Queen V.
Live and silent auctions engaged the audience and helped raise funds. Some of the highest-bid lots included a wine tour at the Napa vineyard of Yao Ming, former NBA athlete for the Houston Rockets, and two tickets to the Broadway show Hamilton.
New York, NY: July 3rd, 2016: As women, you burn yourselves in the process of accomplishing things in life, Chandrika Tandon, a 2011 GRAMMY nominated artist and a Billboard Nominee for top 40 Women in Music 2011, told a packed audience at the Women’s Forum during the 34th annual Convention of 34th annual convention of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square, New York City on July 2nd, 2016.
In her opening remarks, Dr. Seema Jain, adhered to the 4 Es, she had presented as the major themes on her inaugural day a year ago, Excellence of Education, Enlightenment, Evolution, and Empowerment of women, stated that “There is a need for empowerment of women, which means women should be respected at work and at corporate and Boardroom table. One would treat them with respect just as you would treat your mom, wife, sister, and daughter.”
Chandrika Tandon addressing the audience
Stating that she is the 3rd woman president in the 34 year-old long history of AAPI, Dr. Jain said, “In spite of the many challenges, we have been able to achieve great things.” Reminding the audience about the tradition of woman being considered a goddess in the Indian tradition, she said, “You go to the temple to pray to the goddess, and that devotion to women must be translated into real life.”
Dr. Rita Ahuja, Chairwoman of the convention said, “For the very first time in the history of AAPI, both the President and the Convention Chair are women. We are so fortunate to have Dr. Seema Jain as the President of AAPI.”
Tandon, who was the keynote speaker at the Women’s Forum, is Chairman of her financial advisory firm, Tandon Capital Associates, Inc. She has worked with more than 40 financial and service institutions all over the world and has spearheaded projects that involved major financial and operational restructuring, global and domestic strategy, and broad-based culture change. Prior to that, she was a partner at McKinsey and Company.
Being a wife, mother, businesswoman, artiste, each role she plays is so demanding. But, Tandon said, she was able to all of them. “I made major tradeoffs. Life as founder-chairman of my company was brutal: Restructuring an Australian company, I’d fly 32 hours to Brisbane, stay nine days, talk to my nine-year-old via nightly video-conference, micro-arranging her schedule. Returning home, I’d talk to my Brisbane team and work non-stop negotiating other clients. I wasn’t the emotionally available mother I wanted to be. Flying 32 hours every nine days took a toll. Then, I was offered a multimillion-dollar deal, spending four days a week in Europe. I considered it, crying non-stop. I had done mega jobs, working with billionaires, flying on private planes. It was emotionally and intellectually heady. Professionally and personally, it was catastrophic. Suddenly, I had no identity: a top businesswoman, unsure I even had a business. I went into myself, came to a new way of seeing “success” as freedom to do what I wanted. I got into spirituality, searched for answers, for purpose. My life had been other-directed. I re-examined my values: What’s important?”
Organizers and AAPI leaders at the Women’s Forum, during AAPI’s 34th convention in New York
Kim Guadagno, Lt. Governor of New Jersey, a panelists on the Women’s Forum stressed the need for women to be more educated than men. She drew the attention of the audience to a New York Times story stating that there are there are more Johns in higher positions in healthcare than all women put together. When asked about the need for legislation, she said, “There are enough policies but, all of us need to implement those policies to avoid discrimination.” She underscored the need “knowing your rights and use them always in the right way is so important.” While stating that “It’s a challenge to play multiple roles,” she shared with the audience about her own personal life when she stayed home for eight years to take care of her three children, she said, ”I gave up my job to care for the family needs.” But it worked well.” According to her, “The biggest challenge is to keep fighting. Women need to support each other and applaud each other’s victory. If you are not doing it no one is going to do it for yourself,” she told the audience.
Dr. Sherine Gabriel, Dean of Rutgers RWJM School & CEO Rutgers RWJM Group, another panelist said, “We have come a long way. There are about 50 percent women in med schools, but the irony is that the board rooms do not have enough women. We have a long way to go on that end.” Her tips for women to succeed and be independent and be able to take charge, are: Be authentic; Be passionate; Be prepared to walk an extra mile; and, Be unstoppable in spite of hurdles. “You know where you want to go and never give up. Choose your partner wisely, who is wlling to share responsibilities with you and someone who can always willing to step up to the occasion.” Stressing the need for compromise, she said, “I strongly believe in promoting equality. You are the role models for all of us here. Keep fighting and support one another.”
Aroon Shivdasani, President of Indo-American Arts Council, shared with the audience her own personal experiences of being called by people as “Fakir of New York City,” who always for the sake of art, and for the sake of the not -for-profit organizations, appeal for financial support. “I lead a not-for-profit and being a woman I am not taken seriously because I am always begging. When you lead a nonprofit, you get to lead and touch so many lives. A lot of people who come out and do these noble endeavors, they do this out of need. It’s not a hobby,” she said.
When asked about the need to choose one’s partner wisely, she said, “Being an Indian woman is so different.” She recommended that “Be sure of what you want to be and be passionate about what you want to achieve. Believe in yourself and go ahead and do it.” She admitted that “women have the corner on guilt. We do it to ourselves. We all need to have a sense of humor, especially when you have so many roles to play in life and each one is so demanding.”
Standing ovation for the women speakers during Women’s Forum
Dr. Rachana Kulkarni, Co-Chair of Women’s Forum, who moderated the panel discussion pointed out how women are being judged differently than men in almost every aspect of life. “People’s expectations are weaved into the culture. There is an unconscious gender bias. And I tell my son, not to dependent on women in life.”
Sunanad Gaur, Co-Chair of Women’s Forum, in her opening remarks, stated that there are as many as 70% of the healthcare jobs are held by women, but only a handful of jobs in Board “there is an unconscious structural bias. There is a need for looking within and identify ways to move forward in order to be agents of change from within.
Dr. Udaya Shivangi, Co-Chair of Women’s Forum, stressed the need for enhancing professional growth without compromising one’s family, values and interests in life. She shared with the audience how how her mother inspired her to dream and work towards realizing her dreams.
Sharing with the audience about her own life story, which has been an inspiration to millions, Tandon said, “We lived with my grandfather who read to us every night — Shakespeare, English poetry. He made you feel you can be anything you want. It was inconceivable that I’d apply to IIM, or get in. What I got from my grandfather was inner unstoppability. Many people are smarter, more talented. I have inner strength.”
It had been a struggle at every stage of her life. “I fought to go to college, went on a hunger strike for business school until my mother agreed to let me go. A I’d followed my career mindlessly — among the youngest in my IIM class, accepted into Citibank (which took three out of 116 applicants), then McKinsey’s, and my own business. I never stopped. But I wasn’t focused on the lack, I focused on the possibility.”
Organizers and AAPI leaders at the Women’s Forum, during AAPI’s 34th convention in New York
After much soul searching, she said, “My happiest times were around music.” Despite dizzy business success, Chandrika Tandon’s first love remains music, a passion which came from her mother. She remembers that he mother would switch on the radio at 5 am in the morning.
In the US, to learn music from a master she would leave home at 4 in the morning for a two hour session between 6 to 8 am. She wanted to be home by the time her daughter woke up. Then she started travelling with her music teachers and would squeeze in lessons between business meetings. She was nominated for GRAMMY for her album. Her philanthropy has been inspirational. “support education, wellness and arts. It’s about making life full and enriching in one’s days here. I’m happy I turned away from the work. I’m blessed to have the freedom to choose how I want to spend my days.
Tandon suggested that everyone needs to have the courage that comes from competence; the courage that comes from compassion; and, the courage that comes from contemplation.” Indian women give up anything for others, she said. “Compassion and karma are tied together. We cannot change others. If you cannot take yourself seriously how can others take you seriously?” she asked the delegates. She told the women in attendance, “We are technically brilliant. But our soft skills are terrible,” noting that “our emotional intelligence is the real problem.” She said, “Woman is a powerful force that can move everything. One must believe that I am the power. I am the light.”
Actress Freida Pinto has joined hands with the Michelle Obama, the First Lady for Let Girls Learn – a government initiative aimed at helping girls obtain quality education. Freida, along with Michelle Obama, her daughters Sasha and Malia, their grandmother Marian Robinson – will travel to Liberia, Morocco and Spain at the end of June and early July as part of the Let Girls Learn initiative, a statement issued on behalf of the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ actress, stated.
The focus of the trip, which includes Monrovia, Marrakesh and Madrid, is for them to speak to young girls about the importance of education and staying in school. Starting with Liberia, Freida and Michelle will take part in a discussion which will cover the educational barriers girls face in the country.
In Liberia, Pinto, 31, and Obama will take part in a discussion, which will cover the educational barriers girls face in the country. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will meet with the First Lady and Pinto. Next, in Morocco, Hollywood star Meryl Streep will be seen joining Michelle and Freida to discuss the challenges women in the African country deal with on a regular basis.
Pinto, who became popular after her award winning role in Slumdog Millionaire, recently launched a women’s empowerment project at the 69th Cannes International Film Festival. As Plan International’s Girls’ Rights Ambassador, Freida Pinto is fast following in the humanitarian footsteps of Hollywood starlets like Angelina Jolie, Emma Watson and Beyonce, using their fame to help shine a spotlight on issues affecting women and girls around the world.
In a recent interview, Pinto said, “There are events in history that should have shaped the future for women differently, but they haven’t so far and that’s been frustrating. But now there’s a huge amount of awareness and technology has made it possible for people to come together and not isolate their struggles. The struggles of a girl from Africa aren’t that different to those of a girl in India, and in turn, a girl in America. No matter how modern and educated she might think her community or society is, there’s still sexual violence against women, there’s still rape. I think technology has made it easier for people to come together, and their voices are united and louder than ever before.”
Acknowledging that she always knew that she was “born more privileged than some of the girls who I’ve met through Plan,” Pinto believes that she feels “that protection, comfort and privilege I had growing up is something that every girl should have. We’re not asking for a luxury car or a big home, we’re just saying that girls should be able to go to school. That’s not a big ask. There’s a domino effect that may start small but before we know it, we can have an impact on a whole community, then a whole nation, then the world will catch up. We have to start small though.”
Pinto, who had travelled to some of the poorer nations advocating for women’s ruights and education, recalls her earlier trip to Sierra Leone, “where I met one little girl at a school, during a class discussion about what the children wanted to become when they were older. This girl said to me that she’d like to become a finance minister. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s kinda boring but great!’ I asked her why and she said: ‘Because my country does not know how to spend their money on what they should be spending it on, and I would like to help them do that.’ These girls have no choice but to be aware of what’s going on around them and so many of them are using this knowledge to their advantage, which is really inspiring.”
New York: Every seventh patient seen in the country are by physicians of Indian origin. The largely influential Indian American community boasts of its success in Medicine, Academia and Research. Now, a new report claims that a third of high-achieving female physicians or scientists in the US have been victims of sexual harassment, say researchers led by an Indian-origin scientist. In addition, 30 percent of women compared to four percent of men said they had experienced sexual harassment in their professional careers.
The findings showed that women were more likely than men to report both perceptions and experiences with gender bias. Gender bias was perceived by 70 percent of women as against 22 percent of men and 66 percent of women said they experienced gender bias compared to 10 percent of men.
“The perception among many of us is that this type of behaviour is a thing of the past. So it’s heartening to see quite how many relatively young women in this sample reported experiences with harassment and discrimination,” said study author Reshma Jagsi, associate professor at the University of Michigan Medical School.
“This is a sobering reminder that our society has a long way to go before we achieve gender equity,” Jagsi added. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that the situation reflects a larger societal problem.
Women who experience these types of harassment may be less likely to report these incidents if they feel they are unique and aberrational. “We need to recognise the degree to which sexual harassment and gender inequality continue to be an issue in academic medicine,” Jagsi noted.
Researchers surveyed 1,066 men and women who had received a career development award between 2006-2009 from the National Institutes of Health. The physicians were asked a number of questions about their career experiences, including questions about gender bias, gender advantage and sexual harassment.
Medicine is a notoriously grueling career, with punishing hours, rampant burnout and the threat of crippling student loan debt. And for women, the landscape can be even bleaker. New findings suggest that 30 percent of top women clinician-researchers have experienced blatant sexual harassment on the job.
The study, published in JAMA included more than 1,700 men and women who’ve received K-awards, prestigious career development awards handed out by the National Institutes of Health.
Sixty-six percent of the women who responded to the survey said they’d personally experienced some form of gender bias in their career, compared to just 10 percent of men. And 70 percent said they perceived gender-based biases against women in the the field, though not necessarily personally.
Perhaps more shocking, 30 percent of the women said they’d experienced outright sexual harassment, including sexist remarks or behavior, unwanted sexual advances, bribery, threats and coercion.
“I had a misperception that overt sexual harassment was largely a thing of the past, a vestige of another generation,” admitted study author Dr. Reshma Jagsi of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who frequently lectures on why relatively few women reach the senior ranks in academic medicine.
In a survey of academic medical faculty conducted in 1995 (but published in 2000), more than 50 percent of women said they’d experienced harassment in their careers, compared to just 5 percent of men. Jagsi said she had expected to see a significant dip in incidents of sexual harassment in the latest survey, particularly given that the makeup of medicine has changed so much and women now make up roughly half of all medical students.
New York, NY: Kshama Sawant, the only Socialist on the Seattle City Council, traveled to New York seeking support for Bernie Sanders On April 9th. Sawant, a member of the Alternative Socialist Party, identifies with Sanders who describes himself as an avowed Democratic Socialist with the watchword “political revolution” as his main campaign slogan.
In a “Clinton v Sanders” New York proxy debate between supporters of Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Sanders, held at the Judson Memorial, a radical church on Washington Square in the Big Apple, opponents lined up in a vehement debate about their respective candidates’ positions, Slate.com reported. Seated among prominent nationally recognized personalities, Sawant, sought New Yorkers to support the Vermont Senator to be th next President of the nation.
Kshama Sawant had addressed one of Bernie Sander’s biggest rallies to date last month, the evening before Washington State voters delivered a whopping 73% victory for Sanders. Kshama Sawant fired up the crowd with a fist of solidarity before saying “Sisters and brothers, are you feeling the Bern?!”
She went on to say, “It’s really amazing how Bernie’s campaign has transformed the entire landscape of US national politics. His anti-corporate insurgent campaign has made gains that have been stunning enough to deny Hillary (the Wall Street and Wal-Mart candidate) the straight up coronation she thought she deserved….It’s not just young people in general, it’s young women. Women who were told by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, ‘If you don’t support Hillary, you’re becoming complacent about reproductive rights.’ Women who were told by Madeline Albright that ‘there was going to be a special place in hell for them’ if they supported Bernie against Hillary.’ I think there’s a special place in hell for Madeline Albright. Look at the results in Michigan which defied all polls, where both black and white working class people, when they cast their vote for Bernie, spoke out against the massive de-industrialization that has gone through the mid-West because of NAFTA and those shitty trade deals the Clinton’s were responsible for. And Arab Americans, Muslims, voted in large numbers for Bernie, because they respect a real challenge to imperialism. But, my sisters and brothers, the most profound sign of our times, is the support for Socialism. This is America, this is the belly of the capitalist beast and we have millions of people saying socialism is not a dirty word, capitalism is a dirty word.”
Writing in the Huffington Post on March 2, under the headline, “Bernie vs Hillary, What’s a Feminist to do?” Sawant argued fervently for Sanders. She sees women’s rights clashing with ‘corporate interests’ time and again, she said, even on issues such as $15 minimum wage where women council members voted for ‘sub-minimum’ wages most affecting women. “Do these women not consider themselves feminists? I think they do, though I won’t speak for them.”
“If the question is one of policy and not of identity, can there be any doubt that Bernie Sanders is the real feminist in this race?” Sawant proclaims, declaring that “Feminism, solidarity and socialism are interconnected and inseparable.”
Ruchi Shah and Suhani Jalota, two Indian-American women are among Glamour Magazine’s Top 10 College Women of the Year. Each of the go-getting women chosen for their leadership qualities and humanitarian work gets $20,000 in prize money.
Ruchi Shah, a biology major at Stony Brook University, was moved by problems she saw during her visit to India and applied her expertise to create a solution for real-world problems. Shah is CEO of Mosquitoes Be Gone, an all-natural mosquito repellent which could combat disease in third world countries; she has also been recognized by the American Association for Cancer Research for her research on improving cervical cancer diagnoses.
The anti-mosquito product she developed was a result of her trip to India to see her uncle when she was 15. “He was suffering from dengue fever, a disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes. Yet right outside the clinic, people were getting dozens of mosquito bites! So I decided to develop my own bug repellent.”
Once back home, she began by collecting sweat samples from athletes at school — “that wasn’t awkward at all” she quips. She built a test chamber I built in the family garage with supplies from Home Depot, and studied exactly what most attracted the bugs. After hundreds of failed compounds and many bites later, she found the winner. “Mosquitoes Be Gone is the first repellent to neutralize nitrogen-based compounds in sweat. And it’s all-natural,” she is quoted saying in Glamour. She is now at the stage of finalizing safety testing and bottle design, and expects the product on shelves within a year. She currently has a team of nine interns working to bring the repellent to the market, according to a press release from Stony Brook University.
Shah has many other accomplishments to her name. Recognized by the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Forbes, and the AXA Achievement Award, she has worked in a cancer research lab with a team that discovered a protein that can predict cancer patient survival better than the tools doctors currently have. She was a science writing intern at the National Institutes of Health. The Ronkonkoma, NY resident is also minoring in journalism.
Twenty-one-year-old Suhani Jalota of Duke University and 22-year-old Stony Brook University student Ruchi Shah have found a place in Glamour magazine’s “Top 10 College Women of the Year” list for their leadership qualities and humanitarian work. Each Indian American undergraduate will receive a grand prize of $20,000.
Jalota, an economics and global health major, has been working to reform public health in India’s slums since she was 15. With her winnings she hopes to expand her start-up, Myna Mahila Foundation — which seeks to increase accessibility to menstrual hygiene products and public health infrastructure for economically disadvantaged women in India — to other countries.
She told Glamour magazine: “In India, where I grew up, menstruation is considered impure, and even saying the word period is taboo. It’s hard to imagine. I wanted to chip away at that stigma, but how do you change something people aren’t even willing to talk about?”
Ruchi Shah and Suhani Jalota, two Indian-American women are among Glamour Magazine’s Top 10 College Women of the Year. Each of the go-getting women chosen for their leadership qualities and humanitarian work gets $20,000 in prize money.
Ruchi Shah, a biology major at Stony Brook University, was moved by problems she saw during her visit to India and applied her expertise to create a solution for real-world problems. Shah is CEO of Mosquitoes Be Gone, an all-natural mosquito repellent which could combat disease in third world countries; she has also been recognized by the American Association for Cancer Research for her research on improving cervical cancer diagnoses.
The anti-mosquito product she developed was a result of her trip to India to see her uncle when she was 15. “He was suffering from dengue fever, a disease that is transmitted by mosquitoes. Yet right outside the clinic, people were getting dozens of mosquito bites! So I decided to develop my own bug repellent.”
Once back home, she began by collecting sweat samples from athletes at school — “that wasn’t awkward at all” she quips. She built a test chamber I built in the family garage with supplies from Home Depot, and studied exactly what most attracted the bugs. After hundreds of failed compounds and many bites later, she found the winner. “Mosquitoes Be Gone is the first repellent to neutralize nitrogen-based compounds in sweat. And it’s all-natural,” she is quoted saying in Glamour. She is now at the stage of finalizing safety testing and bottle design, and expects the product on shelves within a year. She currently has a team of nine interns working to bring the repellent to the market, according to a press release from Stony Brook University.
Shah has many other accomplishments to her name. Recognized by the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, Forbes, and the AXA Achievement Award, she has worked in a cancer research lab with a team that discovered a protein that can predict cancer patient survival better than the tools doctors currently have. She was a science writing intern at the National Institutes of Health. The Ronkonkoma, NY resident is also minoring in journalism.
Twenty-one-year-old Suhani Jalota of Duke University and 22-year-old Stony Brook University student Ruchi Shah have found a place in Glamour magazine’s “Top 10 College Women of the Year” list for their leadership qualities and humanitarian work. Each Indian American undergraduate will receive a grand prize of $20,000.
Jalota, an economics and global health major, has been working to reform public health in India’s slums since she was 15. With her winnings she hopes to expand her start-up, Myna Mahila Foundation — which seeks to increase accessibility to menstrual hygiene products and public health infrastructure for economically disadvantaged women in India — to other countries.
She told Glamour magazine: “In India, where I grew up, menstruation is considered impure, and even saying the word period is taboo. It’s hard to imagine. I wanted to chip away at that stigma, but how do you change something people aren’t even willing to talk about?”
Long Island, NY: The Indian American Forum (IAF) honored five women leaders for their leadership and contributions to the larger society and humanity during the 5th annual gala organized on Long Island, New York. As Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Town of Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, Town of Hempstead Clerk Nasreen Ahmed (Among many other VIPs) walked into Antun’s of Hicksville on Thursday March 24, they all very well felt the pride and achievement in the air. The Grand ball room was full of so many accomplished and elite, who’s who of the society gathered for one singular purpose, to be the part of and celebrate 5th Outstanding Women’s Achievements Gala, part of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day Celebrations.
IAF, led by Indu Jaiswal, known for her strong commitment and dedication to the community cause was the organizing force behind the gala. This year well known business woman Vandana Govil was the Chairperson of the Gala. And of course the hall was beautifully decorated with spring flowers and theme. Evening started with prayers led by Amita Karwal and Sunny Marerkar. Indu Jaiswal Chairperson of IAF in her remarks welcomed all the guests congratulated all the honorees and praised their efforts in achieving such success. Vandana Govil congratulated all the honorees and also thanked all the guests
American National Anthem was sung by Gurbani Kaur Sethi and Indian National Anthem sung by Amita Karwal… Master of Ceremonies Mr Anuj Rihal and Chanbir Kaur Sethi made the evening enjoyable. Chanbir Kaur coordinated a brief Q&A session with the honorees discussing and emphasizing their accomplishments
In addition to Judi Bosworth who was also presented with an award, 5 other distinguished women who had excelled in their profession and community services were presented with Outstanding Women’s achievements Awards
Dr Manjeet Chadha for dedication in medicine and community Services. Dr Chadha is Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Icahn School of medicine at Mount Sinai , and the Director of the Department at mount Sinai Beth Isreal. She also served as the Director for Breast and Gynecologic cancer programs for Radiation Oncology at Continuum Cancer enter. Dr Chadha is a fellow of the American Society of Radiation Oncology, an honor bestowed on highly select oncologist
Jyoti Gupta for dedication in Music and cultural promotions. Jyoti is extremely involved in social and cultural activities, which include singing shabads, acting, dancing, comedy and helping others. Jyoti is in active member of India Association of Long Island and IDPUSA. As chair of Sangeet Forum of IALI Jyoti organizes monthly musical programs for seniors and adults.
Sunita Sadhnani for dedication in Business Development and Community Services. Sunita is the Founder of Bollywood Preforming Arts, long island’s first ever entertainment and dance studio to promote Indian traditional and Bollywood dance… Sunita also started and she founded Glamorous Event Planners for entertainment and special big events. Sunita is a member of most event and Planners associations, and stays on top of trends by regularly attending national Conferences, She is also a member of the Rotary of the Jericho Sunrise Rotary Club, and she is also an accomplished singer
Dr Runi Mukherji Ratnam for dedication in education and Social Services. Dr Ratnam is professor of Psychology in the department of Psychology, State University of New York Old Westbury. She has served as its chair for almost a decade. She has been actively involved for many years with the Center for the study of Asian American Health, Langone Medical Center, New York School of Medicine, Center for immigrant Health, the Montefiore Medical Center as well as the university Hospital at Einstein College of Medicine. Runi is the President of SACSS and Founder of Young Indian Culture Group.
Meera T Gandhi for dedication as Humanitarian and Social Promotions. Meera T Gandhi id the CEO of and founder of Giving Back Foundation. She is an international community leader committed humanitarian and philanthropist dedicated to solutions to human suffering and deprivation around the globe. The foundation is based in New York and has offices in India HK, and London. Transformational Education of the girl child is the primary mission of the giving back foundation.
Judi Bosworth was all in praises for the efforts of Indian American Forum and Indian American Community. She congratulated all honorees and stressed the importance of role women are playing in this world. Citations of behalf of Nassau County Executive Edward P Mangano were presented by Zahid Syed, Chairman of Human right Commission Nassau County to all honorees. Syed praised their efforts and congratulated them for their achievements. Citations were presented from the town of Hempstead Supervisor Anthony Santino by Councilwoman Goosby and town Clerk Nasrin Ahmed. New York State Senator Jack Martins also sent citations for the honorees
Among those present during the event were Bobby Kalotee Founder of IAF, Nassau County Human right Commissioner Sharanjit Singh Thind, Dr Ajay Lodha, Incoming President National AAPI,Beena Kothari, President of India Association of Long Island, Sher Madra , Shammi Singh and Peter Bheddah, Board of Directors of Nargis Dutt Foundation, Shashi Anand well known business woman, Hassena Moopan from Domestic Harmony Foundation, Rizwan Qureshi from HAB Bank, Roopam Maini from Indus American Bank, Sudesh Mukhi from Arya Semaj of Long Island, Sangeeta Bahl, President of Rotary Club, and several other dignitaries were present
Vocal performances presented by Sunny Marerkar and Amita Karwal, Dance performances presented by Bollywood Performing Arts and Shilpa Jhurani and her students from Arya Dance academy. Mr Mohinder Taneja and Animesh Goenka gave special thanks for all of our sponsors and media partners…
Board of Trustees Dr Bhupi Patel, Surinder Rametra, Bobby Kalotee, Dr Ved Kawatra, Animesh Goenka, Volunteers Nirmala Rametra, Jaya Bahadkar, Anu Gulati, Dr Meena Jaiswal, Vijay Goswamy, Tejal Kamath and Many other helped in making the event a grand success. It was indeed a very successful evening, showcasing and honoring outstanding women achievers, who are successful in business, cultural, professional, education, and medical. Community and social services.
New York, NY: “Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation” and “Indian Consulate, New York” jointly celebrated ‘International Women’s month’, focusing on, Women’s Empowerment through education on March 24. The event also provided the first opportunity for newly appointed Consulate General (CG), Riva Ganguly Deb to interact with the diverse Indian community for vibrant exchange of ideas. Dr. Anila Midha, a prominent Physician who took the helm for the evening explained to the capacity-gathering the main objective of the event and introduced various participants.
In her welcome address, Hon. CG Das, provided an overview of the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao as a flagship initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whereby a third of ‘Village Panchayats’ have been decreed to have women in responsible positions. She acknowledged that, though great strides are being made to empower women, a lot yet to be done to change age-old attitudes and beliefs affecting women in our society, and especially in rural areas. She expressed hope that the grass-root organizations like Ekal, with presence in 60,000-plus villages can play an important role in it.
Aroon Shivdasani, the President of the Indo American Arts Council gave the Key note address. She stressed the importance of educating men as much as women to create an environment in families where self-esteem of individuals is not compromised and women have equal opportunity in all walks of life.
ITV’s famous anchor woman, Renee Mehrra, moderated the panel discussion among three successful women of Indian origin from different backgrounds and family values. Ranjani Saigal, Executive Director of ‘Ekal Vidyalaya’, touched on the need to uphold the standards set by parents who precipitated her own academic success at IIT and MIT. She further elaborated a story how during a visit to a rural area a girl asked her, “what can I do in my village what you have done out there?” According to her, the question has dogged her ever since while she is working at Ekal. She informed that Ekal puts special emphasis on educating girls and making them self-reliant though various skills-training, in rural-tribal areas.
Dr. Urmilesh Arya, C.O.O at Gastroenterology Associates in Brooklyn and a trustee of Hindu Center in Flushing, brought to fore a critical challenge for girls in accessing education – the fear that their daughter would get romantically entangled with a boy, which may bring shame to the family. She herself overcame this challenge and many others with self-conviction and courage.
Dr. Sunita Saini, and Director of South Shore Psychological Services and Long Island Psychology and Psychotherapy Services, highlighted the importance of having a supportive family who, regardless of gender, value building their children’s career more rather than acquiring material assets.
There was a resounding agreement that when a woman is educated, she educates her entire family. The ensuing discussion highlighted the relevance of good health for women as a strategy towards empowerment. The panel cautioned that overcoming the socio-cultural biases that promote female infanticide and the perception that a girl is a burden are major stumbling blocks in restoring dignity of women in our society.
Vinod Jhunjhunwalla the President of Ekal Foundation, USA and Prof Subash Midha, the main Ekal coordinator for the event thanked the Indian Consulate, for their support in hosting this event.
Long Island, New York: As Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Town of Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, Town of Hempstead Clerk Nasreen Ahmed (Among many other VIPs) walked into Antun’s of Hicksville on Thursday March 24, they all very well felt the pride and achievement in the air. The Grand ball room was full of so many accomplished and elite, who’s who of the society gathered for one singular purpose, to be the part of and celebrate 5th Outstanding Women’s Achievements Gala, part of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day Celebrations
IAF (Indian American Forum) led by Indu Jaiswal, known for her strong commitment and dedication to the community cause was the organizing force behind the gala. This year well known business woman Vandana Govil was the Chairperson of the Gala. And of course the hall was beautifully decorated with spring flowers and theme. Evening started with prayers led by Amita Karwal and Sunny Marerkar. Indu Jaiswal Chairperson of IAF in her remarks welcomed all the guests congratulated all the honorees and praised their efforts in achieving such success. Vandana Govil congratulated all the honorees and also thanked all the guests
American National Anthem was sung by Gurbani Kaur Sethi and Indian National Anthem sung by Amita Karwal… Master of Ceremonies Mr Anuj Rihal and Chanbir Kaur Sethi made the evening enjoyable. Chanbir Kaur coordinated a brief Q&A session with the honorees discussing and emphasizing their accomplishments. In addition to Judi Bosworth who was also presented with an award, 5 other distinguished women who had excelled in their profession and community services were presented with Outstanding Women’s achievements Awards
Dr. Manjeet Chadha for dedication in medicine and community Services. Dr Chadha is Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Icahn School of medicine at Mount Sinai , and the Director of the Department at mount Sinai Beth Isreal. She also served as the Director for Breast and Gynecologic cancer programs for Radiation Oncology at Continuum Cancer enter. Dr Chadha is a fellow of the American Society of Radiation Oncology, an honor bestowed on highly select oncologist
Jyoti Gupta for dedication in Music and cultural promotions. Jyoti is extremely involved in social and cultural activities, which include singing shabads, acting, dancing, comedy and helping others. Jyoti is in active member of India Association of Long Island and IDPUSA
As chair of Sangeet Forum of IALI Jyoti organizes monthly musical programs for seniors and adults.
Sunita Sadhnani for dedication in Business Development and Community Services. Sunita is the Founder of Bollywood Preforming Arts, long island’s first ever entertainment and dance studio to promote Indian traditional and Bollywood dance… Sunita also started and she founded Glamorous Event Planners for entertainment and special big events. Sunita is a member of most event and Planners associations, and stays on top of trends by regularly attending national Conferences, She is also a member of the Rotary of the Jericho Sunrise Rotary Club, and she is also an accomplished singer
Dr Runi Mukherji Ratnam for dedication in education and Social Services
Dr Ratnam is professor of Psychology in the department of Psychology, State University of New York Old Westbury. She has served as its chair for almost a decade. She has been actively involved for many years with the Center for the study of Asian American Health, Langone Medical Center, New York School of Medicine, Center for immigrant Health, the Montefiore Medical Center as well as the university Hospital at Einstein College of Medicine. Runi is the President of SACSS and Founder of Young Indian Culture Group.
Meera T Gandhi for dedication as Humanitarian and Social Promotions. Meera T Gandhi id the CEO of and founder of Giving Back Foundation. She is an international community leader committed humanitarian and philanthropist dedicated to solutions to human suffering and deprivation around the globe. The foundation is based in New York and has offices in India HK, and London. Transformational Education of the girl child is the primary mission of the giving back foundation.
Judi Bosworth was all in praises for the efforts of Indian American Forum and Indian American Community. She congratulated all honorees and stressed the importance of role women are playing in this world. Citations of behalf of Nassau County Executive Edward P Mangano were presented by Zahid Syed, Chairman of Human right Commission Nassau County to all honorees. Syed praised their efforts and congratulated them for their achievements. Citations were presented from the town of Hempstead Supervisor Anthony Santino by Councilwoman Goosby and town Clerk Nasrin Ahmed. New York State Senator Jack Martins also sent citations for the honorees
Among those present during the event were Bobby Kalotee Founder of IAF, Nassau County Human right Commissioner Sharanjit Singh Thind, Dr Ajay Lodha, Incoming President National AAPI,Beena Kothari, President of India Association of Long Island, Sher Madra , Shammi Singh and Peter Bheddah, Board of Directors of Nargis Dutt Foundation, Shashi Anand well known business woman, Hassena Moopan from Domestic Harmony Foundation, Rizwan Qureshi from HAB Bank, Roopam Maini from Indus American Bank, Sudesh Mukhi from Arya Semaj of Long Island, Sangeeta Bahl, President of Rotary Club, and several other dignitaries were present
Vocal performances presented by Sunny Marerkar and Amita Karwal, Dance performances presented by Bollywood Performing Arts and Shilpa Jhurani and her students from Arya Dance academy. Mr Mohinder Taneja and Animesh Goenka gave special thanks for all of our sponsors and media partners…
Board of Trustees Dr Bhupi Patel, Surinder Rametra, Bobby Kalotee, Dr Ved Kawatra, Animesh Goenka, Volunteers Nirmala Rametra, Jaya Bahadkar, Anu Gulati, Dr Meena Jaiswal, Vijay Goswamy, Tejal Kamath and Many other helped in making the event a grand success. It was indeed a very successful evening, showcasing and honoring outstanding women achievers, who are successful in business, cultural, professional, education, and medical. Community and social services.
Chicago IL: In conjunction with International Women’s Day, BAPS hosted its 10th annual Women’s Conference at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in Bartlett, Illinois on March 12th, 2016. Attracting over 400 participants, this year’s conference explored the theme, “Life in Resonance” and discussed ideas for approaching three major aspects of one’s life: cultural identity, work-life balance, and emotional health. In today’s world, everyone is constantly striving for balance and self-fulfillment, whether it be at school, work, or at home. Along with self-help books and online forums as sources of inspiration, open discussions among peers can often have a greater impact in making a work-life balance a more achievable goal.
As women in the 21st Century, we often are faced with the question, “Can we have it all?” Or how can we handle a work and life balance among various other roles that women have such as a mother, daughter, sister, or professional. In physics, resonance is defined by a phenomenon that follows when a powerful, vibrating system causes another system to oscillate with greater amplitude at a specific frequency. In life, resonance is defined by innate beliefs and timeless principles which drive an individual’s actions as well as one’s physical being and mental state of mind. In order to understand how one can skillfully maintain a steady mindset and strong physical health, one must find a harmony within their mind and body that resonates with their surroundings.
Keynote speaker, Dr. Hina Patel, an attending Physician at the Advocate Sherman Hospital and a trustee of Village of South Barrington, delivered an insightful message on finding harmony within our various roles. She encouraged women to build pride in their identity through confidence in one’s intrinsic beliefs and practices. She urged women to let go of perfectionism but rather to strive for excellence and create a plan for success and emotional happiness. Additionally, Pharmacist Komal Patel, born and raised in America, also shared how a dual cultural identity was in fact an asset, rather than a limitation, in today’s diverse, multicultural society. “We often believe we have to choose one identity over the other, forgetting that we have the opportunity to bring together the best of both worlds.”
Circling the ever-debatable topic of maintaining a work-life balance, Dr. Purvi Parikh explored various practical methods and solutions, including self-introspection, for seeking clarity and focusing on purposeful priorities in our chaotic lives. She also emphasized the importance of living a healthy lifestyle by highlighting wellness and meditation as ways to keep ourselves centered as we juggle a variety of commitments.
Sushma Patel, a medical testing professional at the Alexian Brothers Medical Center, reminded the attendees of the immense power that spirituality holds in our lives through the connection between the mind and the body. Through spirituality, we develop resilience and the knowledge, that in the end, we leave everything behind in this temporary world. This understanding allows us to remain grounded and unperturbed through the wavering highs and lows in our life and is quintessential for a content mind and a healthy body.
Spreading this message of science, practicality and spiritualty across the nation, the conference was held in 12 cities with attendees from various personal and professional backgrounds. Panel discussions and Q&A sessions enabled the speakers to effectively communicate their experiences and thus, enrich the audience with practical applications to bring balance into their lives. The conference attendees were reminded not only of the necessity for maintaining stability, but also of their inherent strengths which allow them to pursue this very goal.
The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), a worldwide socio-spiritual organization in Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, is dedicated to community service, peace and harmony.
Motivated by Hindu principles, BAPS strives to care for the world by caring for societies, families and individuals. Through a number of social and spiritual activities, BAPS endeavors to produce better citizens of tomorrow who have a high esteem for their roots – their rich Hindu culture. Its 3,300 international centers support these activities of character-building. Under the guidance and leadership of His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, BAPS aspires to build a community that is morally, ethically and spiritually pure, and free of addictions.
His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, the fifth spiritual successor of Bhagwan Swaminarayan, has inspired millions of people across the world to lead a God-centered, morally pure life. As the present leader of BAPS, Pramukh Swami Maharaj travels from village to village, continent to continent, emphasizing the importance of family harmony, community service and spiritual progress. His compassion for humanity, universal wisdom and striking simplicity has touched many around the world.
HICKSVILLE, NY: Indian American Forum presented, Thursday March 25, the Fifth Annual Outstanding Women’s Achievements Awards, as part of Women’s History month, in recognition of the contributions made by women in the Tri-State area of New York.
Five women who excelled in their professions and community services received the Outstanding Women’s Achievements Awards. IAF Chairperson Indu Jaiswal spoke about the organization and the awards
Dr. Manjeet Chadda, Professor of Radiation & Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, for dedication in Medicine and Community Services; Dr Runi Mukherji Ratnam for dedication in Education & Social Services; Sunita Sadhnani for dedication in Business Development and community services; Meera T Gandhi for dedication as Humanitarian and Social promotions; and Jyoti Gupta for her dedication in Music and Cultural promotions
Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano said in a message:”The Indian American Forum has established a distinguished record of excellence, working diligently on behalf of causes and ideals, which uphold the principles of Human decency and brotherhood”.
Citations were presented to honorees and they were praised fortheir efforts and congratulated for their achievements. Among the gathering, several elected dignitaries were present who included MS Judi Bosworth, Supervisor for the Town of North Hempstead,
Councilwoman Hon. Dorothy L Goosby, and Town Clerk from Town of Hempstead Nasrin Ahmed. Among the gathering were seen a former President of IALI Satnam Singh Parhar, HAB Bank VP Rizwan Qureshi, and Dr. Dev Ratnam whose wife Dr. Runi Mukherji Ratnam was one of the five honorees.
Following a milestone year in international development in which world leaders endorsed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the 60th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will focus firmly on implementation of the ambitious agreement. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by UN Member States in September 2015 are a universal roadmap for people and planet, addressing the key challenges of the 21st century, such as poverty, inequality and climate change. Gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls is a goal in itself, and recognized as a central means to achieving the SDGs. Success depends on rigorous implementation.
The Commission is the single largest forum for Member States and other stakeholders to commit to new actions for advancement of women and their empowerment. This year’s CSW is the first after the adoption of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The session thus will build on the momentum garnered in September 2015 when, in conjunction with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, more than 90 governments answered UN Women’s call for action to “Step It Up for Gender Equality”. World leaders pledged measurable actions to tackle structural barriers and remaining challenges to the achievement of gender equality in their countries. Civil society and businesses leaders complemented these pledges committing to combat stereotypes and shift practices towards fostering greater equality and opportunity.
“This gathering of so many of the key partners in the implementation of Agenda 2030 makes this a crucial opportunity to combine our strengths and align decisively around the central issues for action,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The priority theme for the 60th session will be women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development. Discussions by governments will focus on creating a conducive environment for gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, through actions to ensure enabling laws and policies, solid institutional infrastructures, adequate financial resources, strengthening of participation mechanisms, and investment in sex-disaggregated data, to guide national action.
Research underlines the benefit of women’s empowerment and gender equality for societies everywhere: for instance, if women played an identical role to men in labor markets, as much as USD 28 trillion could be added to global annual GDP by 2025. When women are at the peace tables, their participation increases the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years by 20 per cent, and 35 per cent over 15 years. And a child born to a mother who can read is 50 per cent more likely to survive. Yet, global reviews undertaken in 2015, during the 20 years’ commemoration of the historic Beijing Conference, revealed while there has been progress on women’s rights and gender equality, it has not been enough. Today, only one in five parliamentarians is a woman and women continue to earn less, have fewer assets and bear the burden of unpaid work and care.
Violence against women continues to affect one in three women, making it one of the most widespread human rights violations. The Commission will evaluate progress in the implementation of its agreed conclusions of 2013, on ending violence against women and girls, a pandemic that also comes with enormous economic costs to society.
The high-level meeting from 14-24 March underlines the determination of governments and activists to move the needle on women’s rights and gender equality. This year over 1,000 NGOs have pre-registered more than 8,100 of their representatives for the meeting. More than 200 side events will be hosted on the UN premises by Member States and UN entities, many of them in collaboration with civil society, about 150 of them in the first week of CSW alone, alongside 450 parallel events by NGOs, in the vicinity of the UN.
(New York, NY – March 3, 2016) United Nations Ambassadors, CEOs, entrepreneurs and celebrities packed the global launch of Shalini Vadhera’s new multi-disciplinary platform, Power Beauty Living, a holistic approach to powering up your business, beauty and life (for women by women), at the Millennium Hotel in the UN Plaza here last week.
Vadhera, a renowned, award-winning global beauty and lifestyle expert, founder and CEO of Power Beauty Living and best-selling author of Passport To Beauty, unveiled her newest platform earlier in the day at the IMPACT Leadership 21’s 3rd Annual POWER of COLLABORATION Global Summitat the United Nations Headquarters, where she showcased how to live powerfully and beautifully to more than 350 country heads, diplomats, ambassadors and high-level executive women from the UN.
Vadhera was recently appointed to IMPACT Leadership 21’s Global Advisory Council (GAC) as its newest member. A global leadership platform that provides solutions to creating inclusive economies, IMPACT Leadership 21’s GAC is comprised of men and women in diverse leadership backgrounds and influence from multi sectors.
“We are thrilled to add such a dynamic, passionate leader with a strong track record of success and zest for empowering women to the GAC. Shalini’s extensive entrepreneurial experience and industry knowledge is a welcomed addition to our team, especially as we expand our international reach,” saidJanet C. Salazar, CEO and Co-Founder of IMPACT Leadership 21.
To expand her own international reach, Vahera is launching a partnership withZoomin.TV, a global top-10 video producer and YouTube and Facebook multi-channel network, with a strong presence in the U.S. and India. She will be fronting Zoomin’s beauty and women’s empowerment vertical, appealing to many of the channel’s beauty vloggers worldwide.
“Zoomin is very proud to start a long-term partnership with such a highly talented and versatile woman as Shalini,” said Jan Reimens, CEO of Zoomin.TV. “Together, we will build up and out Shalini’s global digital presence through her brands like Passport to Beauty, Beauty starts at 40 and more. Her story needs global reach, and this is where we will focus in the coming years. ”
“I created Power Beauty Living based on my own business experiences as an entrepreneur and the lack of mentorship, community and resources, for women by women, in building their businesses and balancing their lives,” said Vadhera. “I feel a strong desire to create a destination for women to get the insight and tools they need to empower themselves in business, in beauty and in living a blissful balanced life.”
Shalini Vadhera is an award-winning global beauty and lifestyle expert, founder of Power Beauty Living, a social platform for women, and best-selling author of Passport To Beauty. Her global influence with women and young girls stems from her entrepreneurial passion to build companies and create products to empower women. Vadhera’s rise from jewelry and fashion entrepreneur, celebrity make-up artist and best-selling author, to a regular contributor on Dr. Oz, The Today Show, and The View and the founder of a multi-million dollar global cosmetics company is nothing short of remarkable. Vadhera has transformed this platform while using her business acumen to create global beauty, lifestyle and business solutions to empower women around the world. Vadhera was named the #1 Person To Watch by The Economic Times of India, Winner of the Game Changer Of The Decade Award in Beauty and winner of the coveted Oprah Beauty O~Ward.
WASHINGTON: Oracle’s Vinita Paunikar, Affirm’s Trisha Kothari and Intel’s Sumita Basu are among the top women engineers recognized in a Business Insider Feb. 24 piece on the “Most Powerful Women Engineers” of 2016, released in the midst of National Engineer’s Week, Feb. 21 through Feb. 27. The list was generated to give a “shout-out to the female engineers with powerful careers who are leading important technologies at their companies or being pioneers in other ways.”
Vinita Paunikar is a vice president at Oracle responsible for release management of products and services. Paunikar was the highest ranked of the Indian Americans, coming in at No. 14. She created a release-management team that has launched 200 products across more than 20 lines.
She’s also worked on several of Oracle’s mainstay products, including its flagship systems-management solution, Enterprise Manager Cloud Control, now also the core-management platform for Oracle’s cloud services. She is a graduate of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology in Maharashtra.
Trisha Kothari has made it into the list at the young age of 23. Trisha Kothari is Affirm’s first female engineer at the financial-technology startup cofounded and led by Max Levchin, the former cofounder of PayPal. Affirm turns your smartphone into a credit card of sorts, allowing you to make monthly payments on things you buy from merchants that accept it. Levchin says, “Trisha Kothari is one of the most exciting up-and-coming coders in America.”
“Trisha was instrumental in building the core aspects of a financial platform that powers everything we do,” Affirm’s COO, Huey Lin, said about her. Before joining Affirm, Kothari did several internships at Google and LinkedIn. She also earned a Google Anita Borg scholarship and one from Microsoft and is a member of the high-IQ organization Mensa. She is a graduate of Dhirubhai Ambani International School and the University of Pennsylvania.
Intel’s Sumita Basu, who xcame 26th on the list, is a strategist and technical assistant to the Intel vice president and general manager. She’s been with Intel since 2002 with increasing responsibilities. In her last gig with the company, she oversaw the equipment installation for Intel factories worldwide — a huge job. For her PhD, she did experiments with the International Space Station.
One of Basu’s most impressive accomplishments is that she invented the world’s first lead-free patterning process, allowing Intel to become the first chip company in the world to limit the use of that toxic substance in its manufacturing processes.
A graduate of Jadavpur University (bachelor’s) and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (doctorate), Basu has also invented the world’s first lead-free patterning process. The invention has allowed Intel to become the first chip company in the world to limit the use of that toxic substance in its manufacturing process, according to the Insider piece.
Women constitute nearly half of the country’s 1.25 billion people and gender equality — whether in politics, economics, education or health — is still a distant dream for most. This fact was driven home again sharply by the recently released United National Development Programme’s Human Development Report (HDR) 2015 which ranks India at a lowly 130 out of 155 countries in the Gender Inequality Index (GII). India trails behind most Asian countries, including lesser developed Bangladesh and Pakistan which rank 111 and 121 respectively, and fares not much ahead of war-ravaged Afghanistan at 152.
The GII reflects gender-based inequalities on three vital parameters: reproductive health, empowerment, and economic activity. India’s record, dismal on all three counts, is especially disquieting when it comes to representation of women in Parliament. Just 12.2 per cent of parliamentary seats in the world’s largest democracy are held by women as against 19.7 in Pakistan, 20 in Bangladesh and 27.6 percent in Afghanistan. Even some of the poorest nations — such as Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique — are way ahead by having over a third to half of their parliament seats occupied by women.
Health remains a niggling worry as well with Indian women’s maternal mortality rate (MMR) being one of the world’s highest. The country witnesses 190 deaths per 100,000 live births as compared to 170 pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 births in both Bangladesh and Pakistan, states the HDR. Even in terms of the percentage of women receiving secondary education, Bangladesh at 34 per cent outsmarts India at 27 per cent. On labour force participation rate for women, as compared to Bangladesh’s 57 per cent, India is at 27 per cent.
The only parameter where India scores marginally better is the adolescent birth rate or the number of births per 1000 women aged 15 to 19 years. Here, over the last couple of years, India’s GII values have improved marginally from 0.61 to 0.563.
However, activists say India’s low GII scores are hardly surprising given the country’s fierce resistance to change and entrenched patriarchal mindsets. “We’ve been featuring at the bottom of the gender equity pyramid for years. So what’s new?” Dr. Ranjana Kumari, Director, Center for Social Research, a New Delhi-based non-profit, told IPS. “Though the gender agenda has higher visibility in India now, that positive momentum hasn’t really translated into higher investment for women in different sectors due to continued discrimination and ineffectual laws and policies.”
Kumari points out that one of the most pivotal instrument of change — the Women’s Reservation Bill, which seeks to grant 33 per cent of the Parliament’s seats to women — has still not been passed by the upper house (Rajya Sabha) despite being cleared by the lower house (Lok Sabha) in 2010.
“The non-passage of the Bill due to splintered views of different political parties has severely inhibited women’s participation in politics. Until this basic requirement is addressed, Indian women can’t truly be empowered,” observed the activist.
According to some women politicians, bias underlines the selection of women as political candidates. National and regional Indian parties continue to follow the policy of exclusion while allotting seats to women. The common perception is that they lack the ‘win-ability’ factor. Those who manage to win elections have to work doubly hard to prove themselves as compared to the men,” one senior woman politician told IPS on the condition of anonymity.
The current gender picture appears even more disconcerting, say experts, as the principle of gender equality as enshrined in the Indian constitution. The framework of Indian laws, development policies, plans and programs too, are aimed at women’s advancement and equality. India, also a signatory to the Millennium Declaration adopted at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2000, has reaffirmed its commitment towards promoting gender parity.
“These goals are not only desirable in themselves but are critical for achieving UN’s other Millennium Development Goals,” opines Dr. Abha Khatri, former professor of political science at Delhi University. “These include 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies, state legislatures and Parliament; elimination of all forms of violence against women; skill development for women; making women’s participation in education safe and secure; elimination of sex selection before birth; and universal access to sexual and reproductive health.”
The benefits of India becoming a 2-trillion dollar economy, Asia’s third largest, have also not percolated down to its women, point out economists. On the contrary, Indian women’s workforce participation has plummeted from 35 per cent in 1990 to 27 per cent in 2013. According to a 2012 report on global employment trends by the International Labour Organisation, many Indian women are able to find only marginal work in the informal economy, with low wages and little or no job security.
Ladakh, India – Widespread unemployment here leaves little choice of employment for women. Most have no educational background as schools are few. Credit: Neeta Lal/IPS
Well-qualified young urban women too, admit to having limited job options. Though over 60 per cent of urban females are a part of the informal sector, unemployment among those with graduate degrees and above qualifications continues to be a high 15.7 per cent, states the report.
Even educated urban women are unable to find opportunities that fit their profiles. Close to 20 per cent of urban females work as domestic help, cleaners, vendors, hawkers and salespeople. Nearly 43 per cent of urban women were self-employed and the same proportion of women had regular wage salaried jobs, according to the National Sample Survey Organisation 2011. Nearly 46 per cent of urban women with regular wages have no social security or employment benefits, while 58 per cent have no written contract for their jobs.
The example of Archana Desai, 35, is illustrative. New Delhi-based Desai had to give up her job at a global retail chain when it started downsizing due to budget cuts. Despite an MBA degree, Desai is currently employed as a part-time tutor at a coaching institute earning a fraction of her previous salary. “Though I’m technically qualified to hold a manager’s position, I’m stuck with something I don’t have any passion for. Why can’t the government provide jobs for women like us?”
Addressing women’s unemployment or underemployment issues can be deeply transformative for the country’s economy, says a McKinsey Global Institute report, “The Power of Parity: Advancing Women’s Equality in India”. The report states that improving gender parity at the workplace can help India add a whopping 2.9 trillion dollars to its GDP in 2025.
If this isn’t incentive enough, what is question activists. Besides, Indian women constitute almost 30 per cent of the total workforce in the country. Stricter policy and legislative measures need to be adopted as there is statutory recognition of the principle of equal job opportunities and equal pay under the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976.
To be fair, some measures have been taken by the Center to address the gender parity skew. The government has announced a 33 per cent reservation for women in police forces of union territories, including Delhi, for posts from constables to sub-inspectors to make the police more gender-sensitive. Another scheme — ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ (Save the Daughter, Educate Her) — focuses on improving the life of the girl child in 100 districts with low child sex ratio (CSR), meaning many fewer girls than boys. The initiative is especially critical for a country like India which hosts one of the world’s lowest CSRs. Daman and Diu records a CSR of 618 girls per 1,000 boys.
“The key to achieving gender parity is resources. We need gender-responsive budgeting and money to be allocated and spent effectively on achieving these goals,” elaborates Kumari. Any breakthrough on gender equality also requires changes in the mindsets of all stakeholders –including legislators, administrators as well as the public — so that every social, economic and political issue can be made gender-sensitive, sums up the activist.
The Karnataka government’s ensuing Global Investors Meet (GIM) here on February 3-5 would focus on promoting women entrepreneurs in the state, an official said last week. “For the first time in a GIM, a session on promoting women entrepreneurship in the state will be held on February 4. They will also be given a centre-stage platform to connect and network with other stakeholders,” Additional Chief Secretary, Commerce and Industries, K. Ratna Prabha said in a statement here.
The three-day ‘Invest Karnataka 2016’ will be held at Bangalore Palace grounds in the city centre to promote the southern state as a premier destination for investments from across the country and overseas. “A delegation of women entrepreneurs from San Francisco on the U.S. west coast will participate in the GIM as an outcome of an agreement between the two cities (Bengaluru and San Francisco),” Prabha said in the statement after chairing a meeting with women associations on the event here.
Asserting that women entrepreneurs were talented, hard working and forward looking, Prabha said they performed much better in diverse sectors such as aerospace, biotech, IT, textiles and tourism. “We are encouraging women entrepreneurs also to move away from Bengaluru and set up units in tier-two and tier-three cities for giving impetus to other regions in the state,” Prabha added.
The state government has decided to provide two exclusive industrial areas for women entrepreneurs at Hubballi-Dharwad and Harohalli in Ramanagara district, about 45km from Bengaluru, five percent of plots and sheds in industrial areas and estates and exclusive textiles and gems & jeweler clusters.
India-based writer and college student Nikita Azad has launched the campaign #HappyToBleed on November 21 on Facebook, after Sabarimala Temple Board president Prayar Gopalakrishnan said he would not allow women to enter the place of worship until they were verified not to be menstruating by a machine.
Women of menstruating age – between 12 and 50 — have long been banned from the famed Kerala, India, temple, which hosts more than one million visitors each year. Women’s entry into the temple has been the subject of controversy for several years; the ban is reportedly imposed according to the dictates of the Hindu God Ayappan.
Gopalakrishnan – who was elected Nov. 2 as president of the Devaswom Board which oversees the administration of the Sabarimala Temple – unleashed a feminist fury Nov. 13 while speaking at the Kollam Press Club in Kerala. Responding to a question about whether women should be allowed to enter the temple, Gopalakrishnan said: “These days there are machines that can scan bodies and check for weapons. There will be a day when a machine is invented to scan if it is the ‘right time’ – not menstruating – for a woman to enter the temple.”
“When that machine is invented, we will talk about letting women inside,” said Gopalakrishnan. Indian societal mores contend that menstruating women are “impure.” Many Hindu temples discourage a woman from entering if she is menstruating. The religious rules surrounding menstruation are not limited to Hindus; several Indian faiths consider menstruation to be impure. Historically, women were isolated in a separate space in their home during “that time of the month.”
The temple president’s remarks were widely reported by the Indian media, which railed against the patriarchy still prevalent in much of Indian culture. Veteran journalist Kalpana Sharma wrote: “It is truly bizarre that the Sabrimala priest should suggest that a machine be invented to check whether a woman is bleeding before she can enter a temple.”
“A man of religious dogma is turning to science to enforce illogical tradition,” wrote Sharma, who praised Azad and other young feminists for the courage to openly discuss menstruation, normally a taboo subject.
Azad, who writes for the blogs Feminism in India and Youth ki Awaaz, said on the Facebook campaign page: “Let us be clear: this is not a temple-entry campaign. This campaign is an initiative against sexism and taboos that have been upheld for ages.”
“Class structure has created various forms of patriarchy like locking women in kitchens, reducing her contribution in the production process, considering her a reproductive machine, and objectifying her as an object of sexual pleasure,” stated Azad.
“#HappyToBleed acknowledges menstruation as a natural activity which doesn’t need curtains to hide behind,” stated Azad. “It urges young women to hold placards/sanitary napkins/charts saying Happy To Bleed, take their pictures, upload it to their profiles, and send it to us, in order to oppose the shame game played by patriarchal society since ages.”
Several people on the Facebook campaign site noted that Hindu culture views women as goddesses, so females are treated very well. Azad responded: “We want to be recognized as humans, not as objects of worship, who can decide for themselves what they want and don’t want.”
Chicago IL: Farha Sayeed, spouse of India’s Consulate General in Chicago, Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, has been bringing laurels through her love for an array of arts and crafts and her contributions to welfare of the downtrodden, thereby emerging as a role model for women in the Indian Sub-continent.
Farha has a passion for creating Faberge-styled exotic Objets d’Art from egg shells of Ostrich, Emu, Goose, Duck, Turkey, Guinea, and Hen. These eggshells are intricately cut, carved, and ornamented, using pearls, beads, crystals, brocade, velvet, satin, golden laces, etc., and finally are mounted on beautiful silver and golden stands, making each end-product a customized masterpiece.
Farha, thus, transforms a humble eggshell into a breathtakingly beautiful and precious piece of art, which can adorn even a palace with its elegance and beauty.
An interesting aspect of Farha’s egg sculpting is her successful experimentation with the fusion of Indian and Islamic elements in this unique art form, which is otherwise Western.
Farha’s collection of decorated eggs was first displayed by the Art Lovers’ Group of a renowned Danish Pharmaceutical Company. This was followed by a series of full-fledged solo exhibitions titled “EGGSPERIENCE” in Copenhagen, “EGGCELLENCE” in Jeddah, “EGGXOTICA” in New Delhi, and “EGGSPRESSIONS” in Sana’a, to great appreciation. Farha also participated in the Annual Dallas Egg Show along with other international egg artists.
A member of International Egg Art Guild, Farha is considered as a pioneer in promoting Egg Art in India.
Farha, in addition to pursuing her interest in varied art forms like Painting, Zardori Work, Soft-toy Making and Calligraphy, finds time for philanthropy too to ameliorate the lot of destitute women, orphans and children of special needs.
“I had a passion for arts and craft since my childhood; When I came across a new medium of eggshells it attracted me instantly, I thought I would challenge my creative imagination by testing my skills using a fragile surface”, said Farha.
“Eggs reflect the origin of life. To me egg sculpting is a reflection of my self-expression and a way of looking at objects in a different perspective”, she added. When asked about her plans to exhibit her collections in the United States, she said “I am planning an exhibition in the coming Easter”
When Smriti Nagpal passed out of college with a degree in business, she started a social enterprise for hearing impaired artists. Just three years later, her work matters enough for her to count among BBC’s ‘inspirational women for 2015’. Dwarka-based Nagpal is in the company of Asha Bhosle and Sania Mirza on the global list of 100, although she’s been picked in the ’30 Under 30′ category for young entrepreneurs.
It all began with her passion for sign language. “My two older siblings are hearing impaired so I grew up in an environment where I had to use sign language, and by the age of 16 I had started working as a sign language interpreter with National Association of the Deaf,” said Nagpal, sitting in her office that’s decorated with sketches by deaf artists.
In college, she did sign language news bulletins on Doordarshan. She says she didn’t want to take up a job, and worked with her father after graduating. At a Diwali mela, a deaf artist who had seen her interpreting somewhere requested her to help him find a job. He had a master’s in fine arts and felt out of place making handmade products for an NGO.
Vini Samuel, an attorney by profession, was elected mayor of Montesano, Washington by landslide victory making her the first Indian American female mayor in the United States. Samuel received more than 67 percent of the vote, leading 762 to 366.
“It’s wonderful, it’s exciting and I’m overwhelmed with gratitude,” Samuel said on November 03, 2015. “This has always been about Montesano and coming together as one town and trying to get things done. I think the race went perfectly. We worked really hard and I appreciate the show of confidence. I think we ran a pretty solid, positive campaign. The goal was always about coming together and keeping the city of Montesano as the focus of the conversation,” she added.
Samuel, who was born in Quilon, Kerala, and raised in Juneau, Alaska, characterized the tiny town of Montesano as “a little piece of Americana.” Samuel attended Western Washington University, where she received a B.A. in history and English literature; she obtained her law degree from Seattle University.
Samuel, who has previously served on Montesano’s city council, said she was campaigning on the issue of transparency in city politics.
The tiny town of Montesano in northwest Washington State has approximately 2,300 registered voters.
All results on November 03, 2015 were preliminary results. Ballots mailed were still valid and ballot drop boxes throughout the county remained uncounted. The election will be certified on Nov. 24. However, Incumbent Ken Estes conceded the race soon after the initial tally of votes by the Grays Harbor County Auditor’s office.
Ever since Jaya Iyer’s daughter was a toddler, she had been fascinated by Saturn and its icy rings. When Swaha turned three, she had a space-themed birthday party. But when her mom went to find clothes with space images for Swaha, she couldn’t find any. They were all in the boys section. Jaya Iyer, an Indian American clothing designer is attempting to do away with gender-specific clothing for children. Iyer, 41, of Washington, D.C., launched her clothing line, Svaha, in response to not being able to find a girl’s shirt with an astronaut graphic on it.
Iyer, mother of two, who has a doctorate in fashion merchandising, started her own business called Svaha (which is how her daughter’s name is pronounced) to sell clothes that upend gender stereotypes. One shirt features a grinning green stegosaurus, the plates on its back adorned with polka dots. A second comes in a blazing pink hue, with an astronaut planting an American flag on the moon. That one should satisfy her daughter. “She was very upset with me for not ever buying her anything with astronauts on it,” Iyer says. “Then she started telling me: ‘I want a ninja on my shirt.'”
Svaha is one of several startups that have emerged in recent years with the goal of changing the standards that govern what kids wear. These upstarts aren’t looking to replace current kid’s apparel entirely. Instead, their founders say they want to provide children with more options. Handsome in Pink says it’s all right for boys to wear pink and purple. BuddingSTEM offers science-themed garb for girls. Perhaps the buzziest label is Princess Awesome, which raised more than $200,000 in a successful Kickstarter campaign, showing demand for pirate-themed dresses and girl’s apparel covered in the symbol for pi. Most of the ventures remain in early stages as online-only entities using crowdfunded or bootstrapped cash to sell small numbers of shirts or dresses.
Originally from Dharwad, Karnataka, Iyer earned her undergraduate degree in India and moved to the United States in 2001 to pursue her master’s in fashion merchandising from the University of Georgia and her doctorate in the same field from Iowa State University. “Since I have experience in this industry, I decided to create a line of T-shirts,” the Indian American entrepreneur told India-West.
Jaya Iyer with her daughter
Iyer launched a Kickstarter campaign with her Svaha partners, Eva Everett and Mansi Patney, and raised more than $30,000 to fund the project. With the funding in the rearview mirror, Iyer noted the hardest part was finding graphic designers and production on a limited budget.
“I wanted to make the T-shirts in the U.S., but, since I was going to do small quantity, nobody was responding to me,” she explained. “I have been able to find a factory in India who is able to help me with production.”
Iyer said the next hurdle Svaha faces is reaching a wider audience, but she remains optimistic it will be accomplished. Svaha has zero gender discrimination, according to Iyer.
“We have astronaut, cars and diggers, along with T-shirts in pink, blue and purple for both girls and boys,” she said of the product. “We also have many STEM-based designs for both girls and boys. “We want to provide children with clothes through which they are able to show their love for anything that they want,” the designer added. “It does not have to be limited to princesses and pink for girls and cars and blue for boys.”
In addition to the design, Iyer said all the customers rave about the feel of the shirts, saying it is like silk, though the shirts are 100 percent cotton. Soon, Svaha hopes to shift to 100 percent organic cotton. “We want to be different and appealing to our customers in many different ways,” she said. Svaha has opened an Amazon store and Iyer said the business is continuing to grow steadily, though the company still has “a long way to go.”
Currently, Svaha offers T-shirts and dresses but plans to expand to more dresses, leggings and boys and girls underwear. In the future, she would like to add non-clothing items like towels and sheets, among other things. Iyer has taught fashion merchandising at Marymount University in Arlington, Va., for nearly five years. She has also authored “Retailing in Emerging Markets” and has been a buyer at ThinkGeek.
Anita Adalja, an Indian American farmer manager, was among 12 individuals from across the country who were recognized as White House Champions of Change for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture at an event in Washington, D.C. Oct. 26.
These individuals were selected by the White House for their achievements and will be honored for their exemplary leadership and innovation in agricultural production and education. The Champions have helped implement agricultural practices that promote soil health and energy efficiency, improve water quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Adalja, a manager at the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, has worked to create a more equitable and sustainable food system by increasing food access, sustainable farming, farmer training and ‘farm-to-school’ education. Under her management, Arcadia Farm grows thousands of pounds of naturally grown produce that is sold in low- or no-food access areas in Washington, D.C., through its mobile farmers’ market program. A social worker by training, Adalja has previously farmed at One Woman Farm in Gibsonia, Pa., and was the farm manager for Common Good City Farm in Washington, D.C.
The awards ceremony featured remarks by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and was live-streamed Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. ET. “My commitment to food access, food justice and community building was solidified through this experience. From there, I threw myself into farming by attending an apprenticeship programme at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems in Santa Cruz. I haven’t looked back since,” she said in a United States Department of Agriculture blog recently.
The Champions have helped implement agricultural practices that promote soil health and energy efficiency, improve water quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Anita, has worked to create a more equitable and sustainable food system by increasing food access, sustainable farming, farmer training and farm-to-school education.
Under her management, Arcadia Farm grows thousands of pounds of naturally grown produce that is sold in low-or no-food access areas in Washington, through its mobile farmers’ market program. A social worker by training, Adalja has previously farmed at One Woman Farm in Gibsonia, Pa, and was the farm manager for Common Good City Farm in Washington.
Washington, DC: Why isn’t the global economy fit for women? A flagship report, Progress of the World’s Women 2015-2016: Transforming Economies, Realizing Rights, we investigate what this failure means – and propose solutions, takes a fresh, holistic look at both economic and social policies and their implications for the entire economy. It looks particularly at the ‘invisible’ economy of unpaid care and domestic work that anchors all economies and societies.
The globalised economy seems to be working at cross-purposes with our universal vision of women’s rights; it is limiting, rather than enabling them. Where there is no choice, there are few rights. Women are still earning significantly less money than men, despite working longer hours when paid and unpaid work is taken into account, a new U.N. report reveals.
The U.N. Women report shows that even though more women are in the workplace and taking on leadership positions worldwide, pay levels are nowhere near reaching equality worldwide. On average women around the world earn 24% less than men, the report says, and earn just half of the income men earn over a lifetime. Women in South Asia experience the greatest gender pay gap, earning 33% less than men. The Middle East and North Africa have a 14% pay gap.
Women do nearly 2½ times more unpaid and domestic work compared with men and are less likely to receive a pension. Only half of working-age women are in the workforce compared to three-fourths of working-age men.
Conventional measures like GDP have historically been blind to a large proportion of the work women and girls do, and unhearing of the voices of those who would wish to allocate public resources to their relief, for example through investments in accessible water and clean energy.
“Our world is out of balance. It is both wealthier and more unequal today than at any time since the Second World War. We are recovering from a global economic crisis – but that recovery has been jobless. We have the largest cohort ever of educated women, yet globally women are struggling to find work. Unemployment rates are at historic highs in many countries, including those in the Middle East and North Africa, in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as in southern Europe,” a report says.
Where women do have jobs, globally they are paid 24 per cent less than men, on average. For the most part, the world’s women are in low-salaried, insecure occupations, like small-scale farming, or as domestic workers – a sector where they comprise 83 per cent of the workforce.
Data from France, Germany, Sweden and Turkey suggest that women earn between 31 and 75 per cent less than men over their lifetimes. We need policies that make it possible for both women and men to care for their loved ones without having to forego their own economic security, success and independence.
But there are solutions. The report proposes a number of specific ways in which to mobilise resources to pay for public services and social transfers: for example by enforcing existing tax obligations, reprioritising expenditure and expanding the overall tax base, as well as through international borrowing and development assistance.
Global corporations also have a central role to play by being employers that offer equal pay and opportunities. Shareholders can and should ask corporations to act with responsibility to the countries in which they operate. Annual tax revenue lost to developing countries due to trade mispricing, just one strategy used by corporations to avoid tax, is estimated at between 98 and 106 billion dollars. This is nearly 20 billion more than the annual capital costs needed to achieve universal water and sanitation coverage.
With the right mix of economic and social policies, governments can make transformative change: they can generate decent jobs for women and men and ensure that their unpaid care work is recognized and supported. Well-designed measures such as family allowances and universal pensions can enhance women’s income security, and their ability to realise their potential and expand their life options.
Finally, macroeconomic policies can and should support the realisation of women’s rights, by creating dynamic and stable economies, by generating decent work and by mobilising resources to finance vital public services. Ultimately, upholding women’s rights will not only make economies work for women, it will also benefit societies as a whole by creating a fairer and more sustainable future. Progress for women is progress for all.
As a solution, the report suggests creating an economy that prioritizes women’s needs. It provides 10 recommendations for governments and other key players to adopt, such as creating more and better jobs for women, reducing occupational segregation, and establishing benchmarks to assess progress in women’s economic and social rights.
An Indian American woman has become the first female to be appointed as the postmaster in Sacramento city in California in last 166 years, a media report said. Jagdeep Grewal will oversee 1,004 employees who process and deliver mail on 537 city routes and 94 rural routes – and fill nearly 20,000 post office boxes, American Bazaar news portal reported on Wednesday.
According to reports, Grewal who earned her bachelor’s and master’s degree from Punjab University, started her career in postal services in 1988 as a window clerk. She was promoted to the post of manager after five years of service.
Referring to the steep decline in the usage of postal services due to internet and courier services, Grewal said that she looked forward to working with Sacramento’s Postal Service employees during a challenging time.
“It is only through joint effort and collaboration that we can truly meet our mission of providing extraordinary service while keeping costs down,” Grewal was quoted as saying.
She has also worked as a postmaster in Pacifica-Daly City, California. The US Postal Service is facing cash crunch and recently reported a net loss of $586 million earlier this year.
Pooja Nagpal, an Indian-American from Greater Los Angeles, was recently named recipient of 2015 National Young Women of Distinction by the Girl Scouts of United States of America (GSUSA). Pooja, along with nine other young women honorees will be celebrated Oct. 7 at the Edith Macy Conference Center in New York.
“Our 2015 National Young Women of Distinction have demonstrated remarkable leadership through their extraordinary “Take Action projects,” said Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of GSUSA. “At such a young age, these girls are creating positive change in their communities, identifying local solutions that relate to global issues, and taking sustainable action to make a difference in the world. We are proud to recognize the contributions and achievements of these exceptional girls and cannot wait to see how they continue to inspire, influence, and innovate as the leaders and social entrepreneurs of tomorrow,” according to a GSUSA press release quoting Maria Chávez.
Extraordinary females are receiving the highest Girl Scout honor because their Gold Award projects demonstrate extraordinary leadership, have measurable impact and sustainability, and address a local, national, and/or global issue. From addressing the decline in bee populations and working to stop violence against women to providing wider access to an array of educational tools for people of varying ages, these girls are igniting meaningful change in their communities and around the globe.
Nagpal’s project focused on ending violence against women worldwide by teaching self-defense to women and girls in rural villages in Himachal Pradesh, India, and battered women’s shelters in Los Angeles, California.
As a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo, who is also trained in street fighting, Pooja created a two-part curriculum that not only successfully strengthened girls’ and women’s physical abilities but also exercised their mental acuity through discussions and activities around leadership, community service, confidence, and education.
This past year she founded “For a Change, Defend”, a non-profit, and spoke at numerous events to raise awareness around domestic violence and female empowerment. The Girl Scout Gold Award, which turns 100 in 2016, represents the highest achievement in Girl Scouting. According to Girl Scout research, Gold Award recipients rate their overall success in life significantly higher than non-recipients and report greater success in reaching their life goals.
Moreover, they feel their accomplishments in their lives (95 percent), their education (94 percent), their careers (92 percent), and their financial life (78 percent) are largely due to the unique experiences they had and the skills they developed through the Girl Scout program.
Indian-American Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri has been selected for the prestigious 2014 National Humanities Medal which would be presented to her by US President Barack Obama next week. Jhumpa, 48, has been selected for the award for enlarging the human story, the White House said here last week. “In her works of fiction, Lahiri has illuminated the Indian-American experience in beautifully wrought narratives of estrangement and belonging,” the White House said in a statement.
Among other awardees include historians, writers, a philosopher, scholar, preservationist, food activist and an education course. First Lady Michelle Obama will also attend the awards ceremony at the White House on September 10. “The National Endowment for the Humanities (NHE) is proud to join President Obama in celebrating the achievements of these distinguished medalists,” said NEH Chairman William Adams.
“The recipients of this medal have sparked our imaginations, ignited our passions, and transformed our cultural understanding. They embody how the humanities can serve a common good,” he said. In addition to Lahiri, Obama would present the awards to Clemente Course in the Humanities, Annie Dillard (author), Everett L Fly (architect and preservationist), Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (philosopher and novelist), Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham (historian), Fedwa Malti-Douglas (scholar), Larry McMurtry (novelist), Vicki Lynn Ruiz (historian) and Alice Waters (author and food activist).
The first National Humanities Medal was awarded in 1996. Since then, there have been 175 recipients, 163 individuals and 12 organisations, including this year’s. The White House also announced recipients of the 2014 National Medal of Arts.
Jhumpa is an Indian-American author who was born as Nilanjana Sudeshna but goes by her nickname (or in Bengali her “Daak naam”) Jhumpa. Her debut short story collection ‘Interpreter of Maladies’ won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and her book ‘The Lowland’ was a nominee for the Man Booker Prize.
She is currently a professor of creative writing at Princeton University.
Vini Samuel, Montesano, Washington mayoral candidate aced a primary election and is on her way to becoming the nation’s first Indian American female mayor. The tiny town of Montesano in northwest Washington state has approximately 2,300 registered voters; about half voted in the primaries. Samuel garnered 47 percent of the vote, trumping incumbent Mayor Ken Estes, who received 27 percent, and Montesano city councilman Tyler Trimble, who won 25 percent. Samuel will face off against Estes in the Nov. 3 election.
The candidate believes she has clinched the race. “I just need to keep my head down and stay out of trouble,” Samuel laughingly toldIndia-West in a telephone interview. If elected, Samuel will also be Montesano’s first female mayor and its first minority mayor.
Samuel, who was born in Quilon, Kerala, and raised in Juneau, Alaska, characterized the tiny town of Montesano as “a little piece of Americana.” “The kids still bike on the streets and go fishing. You enter a different reality,” she said, comparing it to the mythical town of Mayberry, RFD, which was the setting for the popular 1960s television sitcom, “The Andy Griffith Show.”
“I want to preserve this place. You really don’t have pockets like this anymore,” stated Samuel, who has lived in Montesano for 18 years with her husband, Guy Bergstrom, who works for the Democratic Caucus in the Washington state House of Representatives, and their son, Thomas, 13. Samuel’s parents, Pona Samuel and Samuel Thomas, also live nearby.
Montesano – about 50 miles away from Olympic National Forest – features three lakes. The town is also the county seat for Grays Harbor County. Samuel, who has previously served on Montesano’s city council, said she was campaigning on the issue of transparency in city politics. She questioned the recent sale of a parcel of waterfront property which sold well under market for about $20,000. The sale was approved by the city council with the stipulation that an easement would be built to allow residents to have waterfront access at the property.
Instead, the property was developed without the easement, disallowing public access to the waterfront, she said. Speculation about a backroom deal between Estes and the developer has been rife. Samuel also sounded off against Estes’ interactions with a deaf city councilwoman, Marisa Salzer, who had requested an interpreter during city council meetings. A confrontation on the issue became more divisive when the city attorney asked Salzer for copies of her private e-mail, alleging the councilwoman used her official and private accounts interchangeably. Salzer has since resigned and wrote in her resignation letter: “I can no longer tolerate the unfair working conditions of discrimination and harassment against me for requesting accommodations from the city for my hearing disability.”
Samuel said she also wants to leverage limited resources for the town’s three elementary schools. Washington state provides insufficient funding and the tax base of the small town cannot meet the schools’ budgetary needs. “But the community here is amazing. I have never seen them say no to anything related to kids,” she told the media.
Samuel regards Wi-Fi as basic infrastructure and said she wants to have free Wi-Fi access throughout the downtown area. Washington’s baby boomers are increasingly moving into Montesano, attracted by lower housing prices in a scenic location. The candidate said more services need to be in place for the town’s aging population.
Samuel attended Western Washington University, where she received a B.A. in history and English literature; she obtained her law degree from Seattle University.
Swati Patel, who became South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s chief of staff this month, remembers feeling like a “rare bird” while growing up in Anderson. Haley announced Aug. 26 that she has chosen Patel to replace James H. Burns as her chief of staff. Burns is returning to the Nelson Mullins Riley and Scarborough law firm where he was a partner before joining Haley’s team in 2014.
“I can’t think of anyone who is more widely respected or uniquely qualified to lead our team than Swati Patel,” said Haley in a statement issued by her office. “(Patel’s) steady leadership as legal counsel has strengthened our staff, guided our administration and helped us deliver results to the people of South Carolina — and, as chief of staff, Swati will keep that momentum going.”
Like Haley, Patel is an Indian American, the daughter of Indian immigrants. In the 1960s, her parents each came to Raleigh, N.C., where her father graduated from North Carolina State University with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. He later worked at the Owens Corning and Bosch plants in Anderson.
Patel was 6 years old when her family moved to Anderson. At the time, she said, there were only about five Indian American families living here. “Growing up as the child of immigrants in the 1970s in a small town in South Carolina, you were definitely looked at as different,” said Patel, who attended Concord Middle School, McCants Middle School and T.L. Hanna High School.
“I never felt unwelcome or discriminated against,” she said. “People just didn’t know how to categorize me.” A University of South Carolina graduate, Patel, 44, is the wife of a Columbia physician and the mother of a 10-year-old son and a 5-year-old daughter. Her younger sister is a pediatrician in Charleston. Patel has spent almost her entire professional career at the Statehouse complex in Columbia.
While in college, she was appointed to serve as a page by Alex Macaulay, a former state senator and retired judge from Walhalla. After receiving her law degree, Patel worked with legislative committees and the state Judicial Merit Selection Committee.
Patel has a decade of experience as an attorney in the governor’s office. She was deputy legal counsel and then chief legal counsel for former Gov. Mark Sanford before becoming Haley’s top legal adviser in 2011.
Patel said the added managerial responsibilities will be one of the biggest challenges of her new position. She said she hasn’t given any thought to her next career move after Haley’s final term as governor ends in January 2019. “I am just taking it day by day and week to week,” Patel said.
Indian American Kiran Gandhi, a Harvard Business School graduate and a professional drummer, said the silence about the subject has to end, and she was happy to have started “a global conversation online” regarding periods. Since then, she has become an Internet sensation after completing the 2015 London Marathon April 26 sans any sanitary protection during her period in a bid to end the stigma on menstruation.
Born to Wall Street investment banker Vikram Gandhi and social activist Meera Gandhi, she said that after her “free bled” episode went viral, she received letters from diverse countries, including Iran, India, Pakistan and Croatia.
In an e-mail interview with IANS, Gandhi, 26, who has toured globally as a drummer with M.I.A and Thievery Corporation and has been profiled widely by the media for juggling her busy student life with the hectic schedule of a musician, said the world is now talking about periods and how women face the pain in silence.
Asked whether she was able to raise awareness about the issue, she said: “(It has) started a global conversation online that I never could have expected. Just yesterday a brave young woman emailed me a screenshot of her on Whatsapp. It was between her and her trainer, in India. She said that for many years she never told her trainer why she misses certain days of working out each month, but, finally, because of this conversation, she had the courage to say it was because of her period.”
Gandhi said the woman’s trainer created a plan that wouldn’t be as painful or uncomfortable for her so that she could still come in and train. “Imagine — that stigma prevents something as simple as women being able to have honest conversations with their coaches about something natural.”
Gandhi, who was preparing for the London marathon for over a year, got her period a day before the event. She had two options: opt out of the first 26.2-mile race or run and let it flow. She chose the second option. She ran the 41.195 km alongside two of her closest friends, completing the course in 4 hours and 49 minutes, with her running pink pants stained.
“I have received letters from women in Iran, fathers from India, fellow marathoners, young girls from Pakistan to Croatia. I believe that women constantly have to prioritize the comfort of others around them at their own expense. In this case, it felt most comfortable for me to run without anything that might chafe or hurt me. I knew that by the very nature of a marathon course, I could actually liberate myself from this type of oppression. That on a marathon course, I didn’t have to think about how I looked or what people thought of me. That no one can tell you anything if you’ve just run a marathon. The respect of running a marathon speaks first and foremost for itself.”
She now wants to continue “speaking to intelligent and forward thinking people” and the media about the issue as often as possible to raise awareness. Most praised her bold act, but there were some who slammed her, calling the move “disgusting” and “unhygienic.” To her, such reactions only further solidified that people are “deeply uncomfortable with a natural and normal process.
“I didn’t need to be the one to respond to these opinions — women’s and men’s voices chimed in from all around the globe to respond to these feelings of disgust. And the very fact that doctors have already debunked the myths around my run just goes to show how taboo and silence prevents real education and awareness about menstrual health to permeate,” Gandhi told the media.
She said she was aware that in India many girls and young women use unhygienic sanitary pads or dirty cloth but was proud that two NGOs — She Innovates and Saathi Pads, whose founders went to Harvard Business School like her — are doing tremendous work. Gandhi, who has famous parents working in the social sector, said it was heartening for her when she got tremendous support from her family.
Asked about the reaction of her family, she said: “Of utmost support, intelligence and joy, they understood that this act has nothing to do with a girl running a marathon and everything to do with a global problem that needs to be addressed.
“And having them behind me has been exactly the kind of strength I’ve needed to move forward and do my best work. My mom started The Giving Back Foundation, which focuses primarily on women’s and girls issues. My father started Asha Impact Investing, which supports microfinance in India,” Gandhi said. “Both of my parents raised my brother and sister to be socially conscious and especially aware of women’s issues,” Gandhi added.
“Bare With Us” demonstrators gathered at the Waterloo Town Square in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, on Saturday, Aug. 1, 2015. The rally and march were organized by three sisters who were stopped by a police officer for biking topless a week ago. Local media reports said people were waving banners and wearing body paint with messages including “everyone has the right to NOT be harassed” and “Bare With Us! They’re just boobs!”
Musician Alysha Brilla said she and her sisters were not wearing shirts while cycling in Kitchener, Ontario, on July 24 when a male police officer drove up beside them and told them to cover up because it is the law. Brilla said she told the officer he was wrong and that when she started filming the interaction on her cellphone, the officer said he had only wanted to check if the women had proper bells and lights on their bicycles.
Ontario women have had the right to go topless in public since 1996. A similar incident in June garnered headlines after an 8-year-old was told by city staff in Guelph, Ontario, to cover up while she was in a wading pool wearing only a swim bottom.
“It was really well attended, and the people who came were very supportive. I had no idea how polarizing the issue would be. I thought people would not be so disturbed by the female breast. We just want to advocate and let people know that they do have this right,” Brilla was quoted as saying.
Alysha Brilla Organizes Topless “Bare With Us” Protest
They carried slogans of “They feed you, they breed you, but they sure as hell don’t need you” through the streets. Another one read: “They are boobs, not bombs, chill out.” Police in Canada allegedly stopped the three sisters for cycling topless a week ago in Kitchener, Ontario.
A male police officer who asked them to cover up to comply with the law was told that women in Ontario had the right to go topless in public since 1996. As Brilla started recording their conversation on her phone, the policeman changed his stance and said he stopped to check if their bikes had proper bells and lights for safety.
A Tweet by Deepa Kumar, an associate professor of media studies at Rutgers University, had tweeted — “Yes ISIS is brutal, but US is more so, 1.3 million killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.” She linked that tweet to a story which ran on the left-leaning radio station Democracy Now, which interviewed authors of a new report on casualties in those regions and estimated the deaths at 1.3 million.
That was in March this year. Now, months later, her tweet has led to a virtual ideological war about freedom of expression after Deepa Kumar likened the brutality of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, ISIL, to war casualties from the U.S. involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
As per reports here, Fox News in its popular day-time show “Outnumbered” on July 27, featured a discussion on Kumar’s tweet where Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox’s senior judicial analyst, and several panelists panned Kumar, but agreed she had the right to hold and express her views. The comments however, went further, questioning whether it was right for a publicly funded university to hire professors with these seemingly anti-American views, a paradoxical argument for and against free speech. The commentators also accused Kumar of leading the charge against inviting former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice as commencement speaker in 2014. Rice withdrew in the face of opposition from sections of the faculty and students.
Following the high profile Fox News coverage, Kumar provided her defense to the journal Inside Higher Ed, which in its July 29 report, “Targeted for Tweets” says things were pretty low key after Kumar’s March tweet, until “far-right” blogs and Fox News ran with it. “Now Kumar is being flooded with hate mail and even violent threats,” it says. Kumar did not respond to News India Times request for an interview.
Kumar, however, did speak to Inside Higher Ed. “This is not the only case of a professor being targeted by Fox News and by the right — in fact, there’s a long history here of trying to silence and intimidate faculty who have dissenting opinions on the U.S. government and policies in the Middle East,” she said. “The only way to push back and defend myself is to be public about it.”
She also countered Fox News discussants’ assertions that she orchestrated the charge against Condoleeza Rice. Her defense – faculty wanted to “engage” Rice in a “dialogue” rather than hear her commencement speech. “They distorted a bunch of things about what I’ve said and done,” Kumar complained. According to the Inside Higher Ed piece, responses have contained racist and sexist slurs. A fellow professor at Rutgers accused Fox News of presenting a tweet out of context months after it was made, and argued that the public could not understand the comment in a “larger context.
Kumar is no stranger to vitriol on the Web. On Sept. 11, 2013, after she gave an interview to a relatively obscure web news channel, “breakingtheset” which had a few thousand listeners, one apparent Rutgers alumna fumed, “She just lectured that America is more brutal than ISIS, and Rutgers is funding this …. I’ll have to remember it on the next Rutgers alumni fund drive when they call me begging for money.” Kumar said Fox News coverage of her tweet followed after a far-right group called SoCawlege published her Twitter history after a June conference on terrorism studies where she spoke and made a slide presentation.
For the first time in the history of the state of New Jersey, an Indian American woman, a Democrat, Nidhi Makhija is contesting a mayoral race in the town of Bridgewater. The town’s current Mayor Dan Hayes has filed to run for re-election in the November race, and he will face Democratic challenger Nidhi Makhija.
Innovator, IT Business Executive & Partner, Nidhi Makhija is primed to move from private consulting to public service with her vision to lead Bridgewater Township to the list of “TOP 10 Most Livable Towns in New Jersey.” A keen community player, she hopes to improve citizen quality of life and governance in the township through her methodical approach of planning, implementation and management of her “4C Model” for the Township.
Nidhi was born the youngest daughter in a family of four sisters in a small town in India. With an Engineering undergraduate degree, she went on to earn a Business Management MBA in Finance. A U.S. Big Five Consulting job offer started her American Dream where she’s worked with some of the most influential companies across the U.S. and the globe. She is now a thriving entrepreneur, business IT consultant, mother of 2 children & an American Citizen who is ready to give back to the community that helped her become more of the leader she is today. She believes women play natural roles as nurturers, planners, leaders, innovators, managers, organizers& caregivers. Now is the time to play an even greater role fueling local government success and contribution. Her life’s philosophy is made up of the three pillars below. She hopes to apply that philosophy to improve the quality of life of the citizens of Bridgewater Township.
Career Highlights & Milestones include, over 20 years of significant multi industry, national & international experiencein Fortune 500 as a IT & Business Consultant; worked with powerhouses such as KPMG, Siemens, Price Waterhouse, Bearing Point, etc. Undertook sponsored training on Leadership from YALE School of Management, Connecticut; financial oversight of budgets ranging from $100,000 to $10 million; implemented solutions for reputed companies such as General Motors, Siemens Public Service Networks & Communications, Government of Pennsylvania, SSM Healthcare, Mosaic Agro, Symbol Technologies etc., and Civic Service engagement with Education Foundation of Bridgewater Raritan, 4H Youth Development, Somerset County Leadership Program, School PTO, Actively supports South Asian NGOs.
Renowned former ballerina Wendy Whelan, explosive dynamo Indian Kathak dancer Parul Shah, and effervescent Kunqu opera star Qian Yi came together on stage in New York last month to explore the connections of their performing arts forms. The program took place as part of Asia Society’s annual View points series, which highlights new ideas in the creative world.
Each of the three performers represented a rich classical tradition. Ballet is the quintessential Western classical dance form; Kathak is one of eight classical forms of Indian dance which originated with Sanskrit storytellers in ancient India; and Kunqu opera, one of the oldest forms of classical Chinese opera, combines dance, music, and theater. Each form incorporates rigorous physical training, requires incredible aestheticism and aesthetic understanding, and embodies the history of power in its respective culture over hundreds of years.
For the program, the three performers each gave demonstrations of their respective forms, including two presentations of exquisite footage featuring Qian and Whelan in Slow Dancing, a video installation by photographer and videographer David Michalek. The demonstration finale included all three performers on stage together.
Viewpoints: Classical Connections explored aesthetic beauty, the female form, and innovation as manifested across cultures: from Qian’s serious performance and humorous anecdotes, to Whelan’s rendition of the 18th century French courtiers putting on airs and stuffy walks in well heeled feet that was the precursor of ballet, to the Persian influence of the Mughal Court where the dynamic Kathak dance was born.
The three women who shared the stage have shaped the dance world and now use their art to redefine dance. For those who might have wondered how their dance forms could ever be related, it became clear in their strict classicism, rigorous technique and aesthetic language.
The program was followed by a patron dinner, where the conversations continued. Attendees included choreographer Shen Wei, dancer Rajika Puri, and American Dance Festival Founder (and 1960 curator of performing arts at Asia Society) Charles Reinhardt, capping off an evening in which the history of the Asia Society’s work in the world of dance was vividly on display.
Classical Connections takes a global perspective in comparing classical performance traditions, featuring three of the finest interpreters of these forms: Wendy Whelan, former principal dancer with the New York City Ballet; Parul Shah, celebrated performer of India’skathak dance; and Qian Yi, Chinese kunqu opera star. Each of these dancers has dedicated their lives to the study and performance of their form, and now are pushing the boundaries to explore new territory inspired by tradition. How will the future of these classical connections be influenced by these new directions? The program will consist of short dance demonstrations and screenings of footage from Slow Dancing by photographer/videographer David Michaelek, followed by a panel discussion with these three extraordinary artists.
Parul Shah is an internationally acclaimed Kathak dancer and choreographer
Parul Shah is an internationally acclaimed Kathak dancer and choreographer whose work is expanding the classical medium beyond cultural boundaries. With a dedication to excellence, Shah preserves the form’s aesthetic integrity while developing a unique and powerful vocabulary. Behind Shah’s work is decades of rigorous Kathak training under the world-renowned guru and choreographer, Padmashree Kumudini Lakhia. Ms. Lakhia’s pioneering work revitalized the form for 20th century audiences, and her training has produced forward-thinking Kathak artists with original voices. “Parul Shah …. brought the house down. Her sources are splendidly hybrid: contemporary dance, the Kathak technique of north India, the female temple-court artists of south India. ‘” – New York Times
Her work includes both traditional and contemporary solo and group choreography. Parul’s New York studio is home to both the parul shah dance company and her training facility. With an M.A. in dance education from Columbia University specializing in Indian classical movement, Parul has been teaching Kathak in the pure form for over 20 years. She has presented her solo and group works at major venues around the world, including City Center’s Fall for Dance Festival in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C, Asia Society in New York, Jacobs Pillow in MA and at the Japan Forum Foundation in Japan. She has collaborated on numerous international projects and presented in Asia, Europe, and North America.
Sunita Viswanath was among 12 faith leaders who was honored as “Champion of Change” on July 20 for their continuous efforts towards climate change. Viswanath, who has worked in women’s and human rights organisations for almost three decades, “is being honored for her work to encourage Hindus in protecting environment and communities from the effects of climate change,” the White House said in a statement.
Viswanath is co-founder and active board member of the 14-year old women’s human rights organisation Women for Afghan Women (WAW).
“Sunita is also co-founder and board member of Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, living and building a Hinduism that prioritises social justice, and upholding the Hindu principles of ekatva (oneness), ahimsa (non-violence) and sadhana (faith in action).”
Through our grassroots green project, Project Prithvi, we mobilize Hindus, especially the youth, to live out the principle of ahimsa by taking care of the environment. We have adopted a beach in Jamaica Bay, New York, where Hindus worship almost every day. Devotees place their offerings into the bay, but the offerings wash up on shore and become entangled with all the other litter lining the beach – beer bottles, Styrofoam containers, used condoms. It is deeply painful to see our religious offerings, broken idols, trays of flowers and fruits, fabrics that had adorned the deities, washed up on the beach as garbage. We reach out to local Hindu temples, and we enlist priests to help us advocate to devotees that it is important to worship in more environmentally friendly ways. We mobilize temple-goers to come to the beach with us on a monthly basis, and together we clean up the beach. At every beach cleanup, devotees tell us how hurt they are to see broken idols of Ganesha and Lakshmi lying face down in the dirt. Rivers and oceans are considered sacred by Hindus, as are trees, all life forms, and the Earth herself.
“I have always been secure in my identity as a Hindu,” she told the media. “Growing up, I thought a lot about faith and religion, but I also had a very strong sense of social justice, what was fair. I imbibed profound lessons of love and justice from my religious upbringing, from the stories we were told, the prayers we learned, the texts we read. I went on as an adult to devote my life to advancing social justice causes, particularly women’s human rights. If Hinduism cares deeply about all people and all living beings, then there must be an active, vocal Hindu movement for social justice and human rights today.”
Through our grassroots green project, Project Prithvi, we mobilize Hindus, especially the youth, to live out the principle of ahimsa by taking care of the environment. We have adopted a beach in Jamaica Bay, New York, where Hindus worship almost every day. Devotees place their offerings into the bay, but the offerings wash up on shore and become entangled with all the other litter lining the beach – beer bottles, Styrofoam containers, used condoms. It is deeply painful to see our religious offerings, broken idols, trays of flowers and fruits, fabrics that had adorned the deities, washed up on the beach as garbage. We reach out to local Hindu temples, and we enlist priests to help us advocate to devotees that it is important to worship in more environmentally friendly ways. We mobilize temple-goers to come to the beach with us on a monthly basis, and together we clean up the beach. At every beach cleanup, devotees tell us how hurt they are to see broken idols of Ganesha and Lakshmi lying face down in the dirt. Rivers and oceans are considered sacred by Hindus, as are trees, all life forms, and the Earth herself.
Through our grassroots green project, Project Prithvi, we mobilize Hindus, especially the youth, to live out the principle of ahimsa by taking care of the environment. We have adopted a beach in Jamaica Bay, New York, where Hindus worship almost every day. Devotees place their offerings into the bay, but the offerings wash up on shore and become entangled with all the other litter lining the beach – beer bottles, Styrofoam containers, used condoms. It is deeply painful to see our religious offerings, broken idols, trays of flowers and fruits, fabrics that had adorned the deities, washed up on the beach as garbage. We reach out to local Hindu temples, and we enlist priests to help us advocate to devotees that it is important to worship in more environmentally friendly ways. We mobilize temple-goers to come to the beach with us on a monthly basis, and together we clean up the beach. At every beach cleanup, devotees tell us how hurt they are to see broken idols of Ganesha and Lakshmi lying face down in the dirt. Rivers and oceans are considered sacred by Hindus, as are trees, all life forms, and the Earth herself. Born in Chennai, Viswanath is known as a fierce leader whose passion for women’s rights and faith-based activism has made her a beacon of hope for the people of New York City.
Sunita Viswanath
A central component of Sadhana is Project Prithvi, which is an environmental initiative.
As part of Project Prithvi, Sadhana is involved with cleaning up a beach in Jamaica Bay, Queens which is a place of worship for Hindus.
Sadhana has officially adopted this beach, conducts regular clean-ups, and also does outreach through Hindu temples to advocate that Hindus worship in environmentally conscious ways, said the interfaithcenter.org. Viswanath was a 2011 recipient of the “Feminist Majority Foundation’s Global Women’s Rights Award” for her work with WAW.
She lives in Brooklyn in New York with her husband Stephan Shaw and their three sons — Gautama, Akash and Satya.
There are rumors across the nation that the GOP is actively considering South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to be its vice presidential candidate after her handling of the June 17 Charleston shooting and its aftermath. Politicians and pundits alike applauded Haley, a 43-year-old Indian-American, for raising bipartisan support to take down the controversial Confederate flag from state grounds. Some predicted the buzz could carry over into a 2016 nomination.
David Beasley, the last Republican governor who took on the Confederate flag, which had fluttered in front of the 19th-century capitol building for 54 years, in 1996 “lost his job,” noted Politico, an influential Washington news site, but “Nikki Haley may get a promotion.”
“Her VP stock is probably on the rise again at the moment,” Republican analyst Ford O’Connell told the Hill, going on to say that she could appeal to young, female and minority voters — groups the GOP has historically had trouble capturing. “She could stop the bleeding of women to Hillary Clinton,” he added.
The move attracted praise immediately, but it also fed speculation about Haley’s future. Her term in South Carolina runs through January 2019, though many have wondered if she’ll cut her time short to run in 2016.
Haley herself has remained quiet on the issue. After winning re-election last year, she wrote a statement that “speculation is just that.” In 2013, at a campaign stop attended by GOP contenders Rick Perry, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal, she was more specific, telling reporters her campaign for governor didn’t mean “something national.”
“Haley’s decisive action to drive the final removal of the banner from statehouse grounds quickly and relatively cleanly in the glare of the national spotlight proved a well-timed audition for higher office ahead of the 2016 Republican veepstakes,” it suggested. “Nikki showed leadership in this instance, and she represents a new Republican face in the South,” strategist Steve Schmidt, who managed John McCain’s 2008 presidential bid, told Politico.
“Campaign 2016 has already devolved into theatre and absurdity,” wrote Doug Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee, in the Wall Street Journal but “Haley recently showed that politics and government can still live up to our best ideals.”
“Haley’s words, actions, poise, and determination-her courage-over the past month have helped her state heal,” he said noting “Speculation has increased about her potential as 2016 vice-presidential nominee.”
“Other state figures had faltered when confronting the legacy of the Confederate flag and pushing for its removal. But Haley’s quick call for it to be taken off has allowed her to bask in glowing reviews,” said CNN.
“The once-rising star, whose shine had faded after her 2010 gubernatorial victory, has emerged from the flag battle as the face of the ‘new South,’” it said. Shortly after the removal of the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds, Haley told CNN that placing the flag there in 2000 was a poor decision.
“I think the more important part is it should have never been there,” she said. “These grounds are a place that everybody should feel a part of. What I realized now more than ever is people were driving by and felt hurt and pain. No one should feel pain.”
Haley, the youngest current governor in the US and the first woman and the first Indian American to serve as Governor of South Carolina, had previously been a supporter of the flag as a symbol of Southern heritage honoring residents’ ancestors.
But it was after a week of funerals for the nine churchgoers who were gunned down by a white man in a historic black church in Charleston with the alleged intent of “starting a race war” that Haley said she decided that the flag had to come down.
“The biggest reason I asked for that flag to come down was I couldn’t look my children in the face and justify it staying there,” she was quoted as saying.
“Now there’s more reason to come to this state. I am proud to say that it’s a new day in South Carolina.”
