Have you heard, "When fate meets you, embrace it with good intent"? It's exactly the same reason why and how I met with Swapna Abraham, G100 Country Chair of Media and Arts Wing, on 30th Dec 2022 during Women Economic Forum annual event. That 5 min of impromptu chat led us to this point, creating a very special series on "Embracing Equity", dedicated to International Women Day 2023. Why I called it fate and embracing it? Because of the timing. Its just right before the Season 2 begins, which is more the reason for us to cherish the wise words from her as well as others who will follow in the 3-part series. Hear her while she and I dispel some myths about equity!
Have you heard, "When fate meets you, embrace it with good intent"? It's exactly the same reason why and how I met with Swapna Abraham, G100 Country Chair of Media and Arts Wing, on 30th Dec 2022 during Women Economic Forum annual event. That 5 min of impromptu chat led us to this point, creating a very special series on "Embracing Equity", dedicated to International Women Day 2023. Why I called it fate and embracing it? Because of the timing. Its just right before the Season 2 begins, which is more the reason for us to cherish the wise words from her as well as others who will follow in the 3-part series. Hear her while she and I dispel some myths about equity!
afternoon. Good evening to everyone. It is yet another day. And here we are on the first times and with me is Swapna Abraham G100 India Country Chair, Media arts and Communication Wing. She is a multiple world record holder and award winner, singer-songwriter. Actor, author, interior, designer, mentor and a marketing and branding enthusiast. And together we will kickstart a very special series of podcast episodes, plural, on this International Women's Day, we will honor the theme of equity during these episodes. Well welcome, Swapna. Let's begin. Well, thank you Priyanka and I wish you a very happy International Women's Day. Thank you for having me on the first times. Absolutely well. But I mean, before we even start talking about equity and you know the the main subject is an old tradition in the first times, what we do is we go into a Mm-hmm. little background story of how we kind of know each other. The speaker and I and how we came to be to the very moment that has led to a podcast episode. But usually I do it however, I would love to apply you to tell our audience of the whole story. Of how we met and how this whole kind of episode came to be. Ohh sure sure, sure. Umm, well as India country chair for G100 Media arts and communication. You remember I was a Delhi in the end of December last year. It Yes. was a panel discussion that we had on systemic changes to make the environment more inclusive. A panel discussion that was to increase and support actionable next steps with regards to gender diversity and inclusion. Now G100 is an organization whose vision is to create an equal, progressive and inclusive environment for women worldwide and its mission. Is to provide thought leadership on what needs to be done for inclusivity, safety, economic and social empowerment of women globally, addressing gender gaps and achieving gender parity within this decade. So Priyanka, I was also speaking at the Women Economic Forum, which was at the same venue and I got to meet you by chance of one of the coffee breaks and we got talking. Um, now 300, media arts and Communication India has a country Advisory Council that has directors for partnerships, communication strategy and research content and operations and among the positions remaining to be filled. There was one for director of marketing. I saw you spoke to you and I knew you were the one I knew you were the one and you were so gracious to accept. Well, our team had been speaking about. Having a podcast for a while and with you on board seemed the Umm. perfect time to get it rolling. After you know this, after several themes that were proposed, we decided to go with embrace equity. The team of International Women's Day 23 and so Priyanka, thank you for this. Well, thank you so much Swapna for seeing some potential in me Huh. that I can add value to the Council group and I am just for Of course. the audience. I wanna know. I want them to tell that it's rarely and and I mean it's it's no bragging or it's not being arrogant or anything. But very rarely do I meet people, especially women. You know, and it's funny because we met on WEF forum where there That's right. was only women, but rarely do I feel so inspired and motivated That's right. Hopefully. by someone's story because it very few have a very legitimate story. I feel probably. And when that surface in front of you and you embrace that, it kind of makes you more motivational towards what life can be or how you can have. So for our Absolutely. audience sake, when I met Swapna in that. In on in that coffee break where she was, she is sheepishly listening to other conversation, if you remember. School was no it was lovely, of course. Yeah, I I mean after I think we what talked about 15 minutes or so after those 15 minutes, I felt so inspired to probably you Yep. know run the goals of my life, which I probably have about not Thank you. abandoned but kind of put on shelf for a while. Ohh that I mean it was. It was meant to be. It was meant to be that we met. We are deeply honored Priyanka to have one board. D fortunate Same here, same here and I'm so happy that we are doing this yes. series of equity via the first times. Of course it will benefit a lot of people, a lot of women out there. And I mean, as I say, Certainly yes. all small, consequential, inconsequential steps make us to become more courageous and resilient and forward us to Azure Key. I hope these series of podcast also help a lot of Social. them out there and us. Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. On that, on that very note, let's talk a little bit about Mm-hmm. the IWD 22023. Of course, we wanna talk about equity, but how I have seen is there's a lot of, there's not a lot of clarity about equity because probably it's used interchangeably with equality. But there's a lot of difference. Would you would you mind telling the audience your thoughts on how equality and? Because it's different from equity and how and why now we have greatly moved ahead of equality at workplace and society to equity at workplace and society. Thank you, Priyanka. It's really good. They were talking about this difference. There's a stark difference between both. Of course, the aspiration started with equality and what is equality? It means each individual or group of people are given the same resources or opportunities. But equity recognizes that each person has different circumstances and therefore under equity we allocate the exact resources and opportunities. Needed to reach an equal outcome for each individual or group according to their circumstances, and so when it comes to gender equity, we need to take into consideration all these things. Women's historical and social disadvantages that prevent women and men from otherwise, you know, operating on a level playing field, the discrimination of women at the workplace and in society at large. Our legal systems that do not ban violence against women or protect their rights and Yeah. marriage and family. Yeah, women. Being far from the equal enjoyment of all human rights, including freedom from violence, sexual and reproductive rights, access to justice, socioeconomic equality, and and simple thing like participating in decision making. So let's remember that that is a starting point for women in general. Over the across the world, it could be different in different places, but that's the starting point. And so equity would Yeah. Yeah. require all of that to be taken into account when deploying resources to women to attain equal outcomes, just as our male counterparts. And I hope that clarifies. You know that very nicely, but frankly, I mean, ohh. In when you were speaking about how we don't give equal opportunities and how they're so many things that need to be considered. My mind was running in the background thinking how come Hmm. every time we need to do something for a woman it becomes a debate. You know it becomes a conversation and I think this is Umm. it. I think the lack of equity for women is the reason why everything we need to do we need to achieve is a debate rather than. Something that is organic and as you said, to have that those True. equal outcomes that equity need to be established now. Now that Correct Priyanka. begs the question. World is big women population is also very big, right? And WEF is a, I wouldn't say it's a small organization, but it's a it's a new organization, for example, right? Yes, yes. What does WEF or the G100 wings aspire to achieve? By encouraging these dialogues, I mean, what can be the possible outcome here Swapna. Right. You know, Priyanka, first of all the dialogues, these conversations are just too important and they need to carry on. And I would add, they need to carry on with the sense of urgency, the core activities of G100 and Women's Economic Forum are networking, mentoring collaborations, upskilling, community building, thought leadership, knowledge sharing, global campaigns, awards and recognitions and most importantly. Policy recommendations now the human report. Warns us that at the current rate of progress, it's going to take 286 years. Wow. Exactly. To close gaps in legal protection and remove discriminatory laws, the World Economic Forum said it would take another 136 years to close the gender gap. I mean, this is unbelievable, right? Truly, truly unbelievable. Yeah, I especially, especially today when the age of each individual is not 60, even if it's an average 61 or something, Exactly. it's it's it's huge, yeah. Exactly. Now, now. See, gender equality is sustainable development. Goal five of the UN and G100 is working towards Yeah. realizing SDG 5 within this decade. Now this is what attracts me the most to this organization is that we're at least. Confessing that we want to try our best to achieve it within this decade, not 136 years, not 286 years, it's left to be seen if this is doable, but simply by including it in the world's most prioritized agenda, just like we do with climate change, war, terrorism. And a pandemic, just the concrete efforts in that direction, I believe we will see gender equity happen sooner, I'm sure. I agree. I mean, if we if we just think about it's gonna be late and we don't even start, then it's definitely gonna be late. If it it cannot be done faster. So I definitely agree Exactly. with you. If we start now, whether after 10 years, we'll be able to see the result 100%, I don't know, but at least 10% of it, 15% of it, each percent matters in terms of it, I think the women rights specially and bringing the equity, you know bringing them onto the table so. I mean, I'm so happy because of that very thing that you made me part of 300 waiting. Thank you again so much. But but I will Thank you. not digress from our main subject since we talked about Uh-huh. why talking about equity and gender equality is vital and important as important as climate. Why don't on that node we give the sneak peek to our listeners of what's in store Mm-hmm. from the special series that we are going to announce. Yeah, sure. So this podcast that we've planned is it three-part series episode one is dedicated to understanding the equity ecosystem, right? Episode 2 will have stories from some of our Yeah. amazing guests of when they felt non inclusive and how they dealt with it with the lessons they learned and implemented and an episode three will be about the serious impact we will have. Equity is overlooked, non checked. And how that will lead to bias and the abuse cycle, just like a repetitive thing, what are the clear signs and how actually takes only very small steps from each of us to help make a better, inclusive and equal to Morrow? Urgency. Urgency is the word of the hour. Well, bravo very rightly said. Well, thank you Swapna for taking the time and being with us and I'm sure I'm sure our listeners are pretty excited hearing you. About the series, what it all entails and what's coming, and as you said, urgency is the word. So all you out there, stay Lovely. tuned as you just heard Swapna more is to come over next couple of weeks are select group of speakers have a lot of wisdom and experience to pour into this conversation to stay tuned and Sure. to stay in line with what's coming and when, follow us on Instagram. Until then. Stay Courageous. Thank you, Priyanka, and thank you everyone. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Bye bye.