These parents shattered the ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ glass ceiling — over 30 years ago
Sulochana Chaudhary, a mother of three daughters, was watching TV with keen interest as Narendra Modi addressed the audience while launching the “Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao” campaign on March 8.
But long before the girl child became a campaign slogan for the current Prime Minister, Sulochana went against all odds to educate her children and inculcate a strong sense of values in them — in a Marwari society which looked down upon a woman giving birth to multiple daughters.
“The entire Churu society to which we belonged had something bad to say to me when I delivered my third daughter. Their frequent taunts, soon after the delivery, left me and my husband tormented and pained.
But I took my daughter in my lap, kissed her and told her, ‘You are going to be my third son. I will give you the best so that you too can serve the nation following in the footsteps of Indira Gandhi and Mother Teresa’,” said Sulochana.
And she did.
After the birth of three daughters, she was shamed for not having a son. With limited access to education and other support, she felt it was for the best that the family move out of the village.
But despite moving away, Sulochana ensured the family visit the village during the holidays. Ensuring her daughters didn’t forget their hometown roots was important and would help ensure they understood rural socio-economic conditions and also instill a spirit of ‘girl power’.
True to her expectations, her daughters finished their higher studies in the US, and chose to join the family business, Jaipur Rugs. Today, Asha Chaudhury is the CEO of the company, Archana Choudhury heads operations in the US, and Kavita Chaudhury is the Head of Design.
“They took the business to heights which I might not have been able to do alone,” says NK Chaudhary, the girls’ father.
With an intent to reach out to remote rural areas and establish bonds with village communities, Jaipur Rugs has enabled women to start weaving. Many rural people today live with constant means of financial support that was introduced by Jaipur Rugs after a rigorous skill training and community mobilisation. The artisans are given training at their doorstep, and once the rugs are made, they are taken to different global markets.
Asked if her parents motivated the sisters to pursue their dreams, Kavita said it was not really that.
“As children, we did not know what it meant to have dreams that could be fulfilled. They simply created a nurturing space for us to grow and experience life. They motivated us to learn the things we loved to do. And they greatly trusted us,” she said.
As chairman and managing director of the social impact venture Jaipur Rugs Company Pvt Ltd, which was founded in 1999 as Jaipur Carpets, Chaudhary has impacted the lives of 40,000 rural artisans spread across villages in North and West India. Over 80 percent of the artisans are women and about 7,000 tribals, acording to Forbes.
In 2015, the company expanded its women empowerment outreach by partnering with the government of Bihar to train women from the Maoist-hit areas of the state in rug-weaving. The aim was to skill the women so that they could earn a living.
For Chaudhary, ‘profit’ and ‘social mission’ are not diametrically opposite concepts. “I believe a business cannot run without profit and business is all about people,” he says.
“An entrepreneur has to have empathy. Once there is empathy, the social model will come on its own. A business is truly successful when you empower everyone involved in it.”
Ketto & Women’s Empowerment/Gender Equality
Since its inception, Ketto has been a strong proponent of empowering women in India. Click on the links below to view crowdfunding projects it has been involved with for gender equality causes. If you feel inspired, you can perhaps start your own animal rescue project with Ketto as well.
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