If you educate a girl you not only educate a family but you educate numerous people in her ecosystem - Sunita Duggal

Ms. Sunita Duggal, Member of Parliament, while addressing PHDCCI’s Conference on Women in Power and Decision Making Judiciary | Industry | Sports, held at PHD House, said, in a male dominated society, it is a challenge for women to rise up to her dreams and if it is coupled with being from a down trodden background it is even more tougher, but we should take up all challenges happily and rise up to our dreams because that’s what make us more resilient.

The Hon’ble MP mentioned that it is very important for a girl’s family  to support her to live towards their dreams, as it has been seen that today’s women has a lot of potential in them. If you educate a girl you not only educate a family but you educate a lot of people in the ecosystem.

Giving valuable advice to the empowered women, the Hon’ble MP, said, every women should attend her work of her interest with an aim of 100% attendance and be a good listener. You must give time to yourself and be with your soul. This is the medium to connect with the Almighty and the cosmic energy and all materialistic things lose their importance, which is very important.

Hard times brings strong men, strong men brings good times, good times bring weak men and weak men bring hard times; it is a vicious circle. So arise, awake and stop not even when you achieve your dreams said the Hon'ble MP citing the excellent example of the Hon'ble Prime Minister who has not stopped his hard work even after being at the top position.

Hon’ble Mr. Justice S. Ravindra Bhat, Judge, Supreme Court of India shared his insightful thought on the topic and congratulated PHDCCI for organizing this conference for providing  new experiences and solutions on the matter.

Women have and will continue to do the efforts towards promoting gender equality in the different fields’ successfully. But Systematic change is required to turn the wheel in the legal profession, he said. He highlighted some of the primary challenges in particular fields faced by women like they are overlooked for the promotions, lack of female centric facilities and stereotype. These challenges demand unlearning and require institutional solutions and a change of mindset.

Also providing equal opportunity is not sufficient, but to provide meaningful opportunity is necessary. Mostly, women are given ornamental positions in the organizations just for the sake of representation which does more harm than any good. Meaningful representation in real sense will yield positive results which should be focus upon, added Mr. S. Ravindra Bhat.

He concluded the conference by provided with some of the solutions to the problems face by women in the sectors like ensuring productive & conducive environment, strict implementation and monitoring of guidelines, strengthening human resource mechanism etc.

Mr. Pradeep Multani , President, PHDCCI, mentioned that achieving equality for women participation, be this in Judiciary, Industry, Sports, policy-making should be our goal- not only because it is right for women, but also because it is right for their achievement. Indian women now serve as amazing role models for the girls, men, and boys, as well as an inspiration for other nations, regions, and generations.

The graph of gender diversity in these sectors has improved noticeably over the past several decades as women empowerment has acquired more momentum on a worldwide scale. It is also heartening to read the recent data released by Madras High Court which shows that around 52% of staff were women and only 48% men. Women employees have outnumbered men in Tamil Nadu State Judicial Service, said Mr.Multani.

Ms. Armin Wandrewala, Advocate & Author said that in today’s scenario women are shattering the glass ceiling in all the fields. Not only judiciary but in sports also they are at the top of the podium. The most important thing a women today needs is equality of opportunity. They don’t need to be treated differently just on the basis of gender.

She urged more women to come forward in the frame and not only join legal services but also other fields of their interest. To address the issues faced by women, we need good laws which are just, humane and equitable in nature.

Deliberating on giving equal opportunity to women at work place, Hon’ble Mr. Sanjeev Sachdeva, Justice High Court of Delhi, mentioned that when we look upto our mother’s for all advises when we are a kid and then our wives when we get married then why can we not be confident for advice from a woman lawyer. He added, when we do not raise an eyebrow for having an all men panel at the court then why do we raise one when an all-woman panel is suggested to the higher authorities.

Giving a perspective of the current work environment Justice Sachdeva said that we are experiencing a change in the proportion of increased women work force in the field of law but even now we have a long way to go in heartily accepting larger number of workforce in our Indian Law system.

Mr. Gopal Jiwarajka, Former President, PHDCCI, while in his special address mentioned that just by providing equal opportunity is not sufficient but to provide meaningful opportunity is necessary.

The session on ‘Women and the Judiciary’ was chaired by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, Judge  High Court of Delhi and moderated by Ms. Saumya Tandon, Advocate

The eminent speakers included, Mr. Jaideep Gupta, Sr., Advocate; Mr. K V Vishwanathan, Sr. Advocate; Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, Senior Advocate & Additional Solicitor General of India and Ms. Aaliya Waziri, Advocate

The session on ‘Women in Industry’ was chaired by Dr. D K Aggarwal, Former President, PHDCCI & CMD, SMC Investments & Advisors Ltd. and moderated by Mr. Kirit S Javali, Partner, Jafa & Javali, Advocates & Co-Chair, Law & Justice Committee, PHDCCI. Eminent speakers included Ms. Vandana Bedi, General Counsel, BIRA; Ms. Ranjana Roy Gawai, Founder & Managing Partner, RRG & Associates, New Delhi; Ms. Madhulika Shukla, CEO, IFFCO, eBazar Ltd. and Mr. Pranav Poddar, Director, Syenergy Environics Ltd

The Fireside Chat was moderated by Ms Karuna Shriram, Director, DCM Shriram Ltd. and Ms. Lalit Mohini Bhat, Senior Partner, Law Links & Co-Chair, Law & Justice Committee. The eminent guest speaker was Ms. Sunita Duggal , Hon’ble Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha.

The session on ‘Women in Sports’ was chaired by Hon’ble Mr. Justice Anish Dayal, Judge, High Court of Delhi and co-chaired by Mr. Rohan Jaitley, President, Delhi and Districts Cricket Association (DDCA) and Advocate, Supreme Court. It was moderated by Ms. Ila Tyagi, Advocate. Eminent speakers included Mr. Rahul Mehra, Senior Advocate and Ms. Poonam Beniwal, Former International Boxer and Coach.

The conference was organised by the Law and Justice Committee of the Chamber chaired by Ms. Priya Hingorani, Senior Advocate and Co-chairs, Ms. Mohini Lalit Bhat, Advocate and Mr. Kirit Javali, Advocate Supreme Court of India.

The conference also witnessed well-attended participation both physically and virtually.

The Conference is duly sponsored by SIDBI and Power Guilt Treasuries.

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