International Women’s Day is celebrated every year on March 8 in honour of the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society. This year, the theme is I am Generation Equality: Realizing Women’s Rights.”
EducationWorld spoke with Divya Lal, Director Fliplearn Education Pvt Ltd. She spoke to us about her journey and how it’s like being a woman entrepreneur.
Excerpts from the interview:
How did you come up with the idea of EbixSmartclass? What are the challenges you faced as you navigated this career?
I think I’ve always been passionate about enabling better learning quality for children across the country. I have started my career 20 years back so I think setting up a smart class for educational purposes and the eventual startup with Ebix was a natural part of the journey.
The challenges I faced were very generic like when you set up your own business. You suddenly start thinking from the perspective of not just your livelihood but of so many other people, who trust and motivates you and join your journey.
How do you balance between your personal and professional lives?
When you love doing something, there’s no question of balance. Things become effortless. I like going to the gym every day, so I go there every day, similarly, I like doing my work and hence it comes to me naturally. I also love spending time with my family and ensure that I do it every day.
As a woman, what are the challenges you faced while growing up and the liberties you enjoyed as a woman?
I think I have been very privileged to be part of a very progressive family. My mother is an MD pediatric and my father is a scientist. I come from a very high academic background. So, there was never a thought of you can’t aspire or can’t have ambition. There was never any indiscrimination on the basis of gender. If you want to do something, all you need is hard work and sincerity. Even though I didn’t face any challenges, I have worked very hard in tough situation of various complexities. If you work very hard with the right kind of people, things just happen.
What according to you is feminism?So, how did you think we address such issues of gender inequality?
I don’t identify with that word. I rather identify with humanism. Everybody should be a human, doesn’t matter you are a man or a woman. It’s all about education. If you bring basic education and health to the country, everybody will have better opportunities. It has got nothing to do with feminism and everything to do with humanism. I understand that everybody has to be dealt with respect and love. It’s not cued to anybody’s side. People struggle and not just rural women. It’s about urban men as well who struggle. It’s a very loft sided view about the “Abla Naari” phenomenon that is happening. We live in a very high-stress life and people face a lot of challenges on a day-to-day basis irrespective of gender. Just operate as dissent human beings and life will be a far better place.
Your message for women on Women’s Day?
More power to all women… and men.
Also read: Women’s Day: Interview with mompreneur, Ruchita Dar Shah
Posted in International, News
