Restarting careers of women who took break

Dr Saundarya Rajesh, founder of Avtar -Career creators and AVTAR I-WIN network (for women returning to work after a break), believes that women employment would be one of the foremost success factors contributing towards India's development in the coming years.

For relentlessly championing the cause of career re-entry opportunities for women who have taken breaks after marriage, childbirth or relocation, and for her indefatigable focus on women's workforce participation, shereceived recognition as one of the #100 Women Achiever (2016), an initiative by Government of India (Ministry of Women and Child Development).

To be a social entrepreneur, one should have experienced an inequality very deeply at personal level. In her case, it was the fact that organisations do not look at all talent pools alike and some are more marginalised than others.

Chennai-based,Saundarya said, "I grew up in a large joint family. As children we were taught multitasking, organising and a natural hierarchy of responsibilities. When I entered the workplace, I found it to be filled with biases against women, especially those who chose to marry and raise families, it was a shock for me. My response was to ensure that I contributed to the creation of an ecosystem that ensured that all deserving individuals, who brought their own special flavour of talent, obtained a place under the spotlight."

With this aim Avtar was set up in 2000 as a voice for the talented professionals who had to make difficult choices. Today, it is Avtar Group – a set of 4 organisations, each of which contributes to how workplaces can fully leverage the power of diverse talent. They have impacted the lives of over 4 lakh women professionals, directly contributing to the return to work of over 35,000 of them.

Just like the majority of Indian women, she too faced lack of awareness as a continuum for many years. During their study, Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI), they found that while all companies identify gender as the basic foundation of diversity, there is an increasing focus on generation (83%), PwD (58%), Culture & Nativity (39%), LGBTQ (23%) and socio-economic diversity (7%).

While COVID-19 has shown us the flexible way of working, there will be some jobs that cannot be performed remotelyand a lot other would require structuring and formalisation. She says, women professionals must also use this time period to upskill themselves in order to stay relevant in the Post Pandemic world.

Avtaris set up in Mumbai that has been operational for more than a decade, now.

The Pandemic has shown all of us that geographical boundaries can be bridged virtually without compromising on the productivity and delivery. They continue to service their clients across the country by taking classroom training models to the virtual delivery models. They are now catering to many more clients that we had in the pre-corona world.

Dr Saundarya' s work in the space of gender diversity & inclusion in the workplace, is unparalleled in India. An inspiring speaker, an author, and a very sought-after D&I strategist, her vision is to see young girls from underprivileged families create empowering white-collar careers for themselves. For this, she influences through project 'Puthri'.