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Neha Bagaria through her platform, Jobs for Her, helps women who are often inhibited by internal and external barriers, to advance their professional lives after a career break.
Women all over the world, and in India especially, are viewed as caregivers and homemakers first. A woman is often considered to be the lynchpin around which the household revolves – her choices are therefore, not always, her own – they are often dictated by circumstances – financial or otherwise, intrusive relatives, un-supportive spouses and the like.
A lot of women discontinue their jobs, entirely or partly, when they get married, when their spouses relocate to another state or country or when they have a child. Some do it out of choice, some out of compulsion. Nonetheless, this makes resuming careers a challenge. We live in an economy, where skills become outdated by the minute. Justifying career breaks to prospective employers, thus, becomes a painful challenge.
Through Jobs for Her, a platform for connecting women looking at resuming jobs to competitive opportunities spread across industries and sectors, Neha Bagaria has helped hundreds of women get their careers back on track.
She quotes her breaking barriers moment as the day when “I decided to stop my 3.5 year career break and get back to work. The day I decided to get back to a career which used to fulfill me before I became a full time mother. The day I decided that I need to stop holding myself and by becoming a better and happier person, I can be a better and happier mom”.
In a world where women are breaking barriers, we still have a long way to go and the need for such enabling platforms is on the rise. Some women are still finding their voices, some women know they want to go back to work – they just don’t know how, while others feel their skill-sets have rusted over the years. No matter what the case might be, it is becoming increasingly imperative to create enabling conditions at work, to advocate for jobs for returning moms, and to give women the space and opportunities to hone and showcase their skillsets.
Neha has used her platform to advocate for such rights with employers, who are now creating gender inclusive policies and are looking at hiring women resuming their careers after a break, often with innovative programmes such as returnee internships, giving women the crucial buffer to transition into their roles with ease.
Keep powering on, Neha. We need more of your tribe.
Watch Neha Bagaria speak here.
Tell us your stories of resuming work after a career break. Has it been tough to break into the professional world again? How did you deal with it? Let us know in the comments below.
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Rajshri Deshpande, who played the fiery protagonist in Trial by Fire along with Abhay Deol speaks of her journey and her social work.
Rajshri Deshpande as the protagonist in ‘Trial by Fire’, the recent Netflix show has received raving reviews along with the show itself for its sensitive portrayal of the Uphaar Cinema Hall fire tragedy, 1997 and its aftermath.
The limited series is based on the book by the same name written by Neelam and Shekhar Krishnamoorthy, who lost both their children in the tragedy. We got an opportunity to interview Rajshri Deshpande who played Neelam Krishnamoorthy, the woman who has been relentlessly crusading in the court for holding the owners responsible for the sheer negligence.
Rajshri Deshpande is more than an actor. She is also a social warrior, the rare celebrity from the film industry who has also gone back to her roots to give to poverty struck farming villages in her native Marathwada, with her NGO Nabhangan Foundation. Of course a chance to speak with her one on one was a must!
“What is a woman’s job, Ramesh? Taking care of parents-in-law, husband, children, home and things at work—all at the same time? She isn’t God or a superhuman."
The arrays of workstations were occupied by people peering into their computer screens. The clicks of keyboard keys were punctuated by the occasional footsteps moving around to brainstorm or collaborate with colleagues in their cubicles. Most employees went about their tasks without looking at the person seated on either side of their workstation. Meenakshi was one of them.
The thirty-one-year-old marketing manager in a leading eCommerce company in India sat straight in her seat, her eyes on the screen, her fingers punching furiously into the keys. She was in a flow and wanted to finish the report while the thoughts and words were coming effortlessly into her mind.
Natu-Natu. The mellifluous ringtone interrupted her thoughts. She frowned at her mobile phone with half a mind to keep it ringing until she noticed the caller’s name on the screen, making her pick up the phone immediately.
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