LEADING LADIES: Women who Inspire India – Volume One
By Sudha Menon
Copyright 2011 Sudha Menon
Smashwords Edition
“This book is available in print at most online retailers.”
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold
or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person,
please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did
not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to
Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work
of this author.
LEADING LADIES
Leading Ladies is an inspirational book that follows the journeys of some of India’s most-admired women achievers who have made a difference to society with their stellar work and other pursuits that touch our lives, in more ways than one. This volume brings alive their unique stories with personal anecdotes that will serve as a beacon for many of us.
While a lot has been written about how these women have achieved success, the book aims to highlight the guiding principles of their lives, the personal and professional beliefs that drive them, the life and management practices that have always stood them in good stead, and the non-negotiables that have guided them on their path to success.
What makes the woman professional/entrepreneur/achiever/leader tick? What is it that drives them? What are the rules by which they play the game? Is there a level playing field for women? Do women need a level playing field? Is there something males can learn from their female colleagues? Are women leaders also from Venus along with the rest of their clan or do they belong to Mars too? These influencers are well-equipped to provide the right insights.
The author borrows from her journalistic experience to elicit a fresh view from some of India’s brightest minds; trendsetters who have not just carved a name for themselves in their chosen path, but have become the torch-bearers for countless others in urban and rural India who want to follow their dreams, reach their goals, and give back to society.
PRAISE for LEADING LADIES
“Grit, guts and gumption are some of the fascinating insights from the mind and soul of women who have changed the face of India’s workforce. Each story tells of meritocracy; not triumph over gender bias. The book is an inspiration for a generation and more.”
DEEPAK PAREKH
Chairman, HDFC Ltd
“I am sure Sudha’s book on the inspiring lives of India’s leading ladies will appeal to a varied audience, including young women professionals. The life journey of successful people, the joys and challenges they face and the manner in which they overcome the difficulties help individuals find solutions to their own problems. The simple and appealing style of the book makes it for very easy reading.”
S RAMADORAI
Vice Chairman, Tata Consultancy Services
“A truly inspirational book bringing to life the strong sense of purpose that has driven the achievements of several outstanding women leaders in India. This is a book that should be read by both men and women. Women will surely feel energised at what is possible for them. For us men, it is another reminder of the enormous potential of women in business and all walks of life. This book will help the world realise the full potential that women have to offer.”
VINDI BANGA
Partner CD&R
Former Global President, Unilever PLC
‘This book brings out in vivid detail stories of women who refused to be cowed down by circumstances and stood their own with dignity, rising above the ashes, not with arrogance, but with humility. It beautifully brings to light the human side of India’s women achievers and reminds us that every achievement comes after much sweat and heartbreaks. What is remarkable of these women is not only their indomitable spirit to rise against all odds, but also their urge to do something for others, especially so that others do not have to go through the trials and tribulations that they themselves had to undergo. Although their path to success was lined with difficulties, they felt the need to give something in return to the society in which eventually succeeded. All these only drive home one thing I always believed: woman is not equal to man – and before any eyebrows are raised, let me rephrase it – woman is unique and she can, and will, make her own place.”
USHA THORAT
Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India
“The book is a collection of the personal journeys of some remarkable and very eminent Indian women. These are women that we have read about and perhaps even seen some of them on stage somewhere, but the author has been able to persuade them to share with her some of their most private thoughts and reflections so we as readers can be an intimate part of these journeys and not merely distant observers. The women that the author has chosen to document, like most of us, have had to face their own fears and insecurities as well as confront some very real challenges. The stories that the author has been able to capture talk to us about the very personal pathways that each of these women took to get to their individual destinations and in so doing, teach us and inspire us to live our lives with similar courage and determination.”
NACHIKET MOR
Co-President, ICICI Foundation;
Chairman, Sughavazhvu Healthcare
‘The book is very compelling and makes a lively read. I really enjoyed reading the interesting interplay between the personal and the professional dimensions of the people Sudha has profiled. It’s a must read. Very inspirational!
CYRIL SHROFF
Managing Partner, Amarchand & Mangaldas
and Suresh A. Shroff & Co.
“I have had the pleasure of reading portions of the book Sudha Menon has written on select women leaders in different professions. This is a well-researched effort to evaluate their achievements and the hard challenges they faced in their personal as well as professional life. The author needs to be commended for eliciting important details from the subjects she has chosen, bringing out their values and the factors which enabled them to successfully compete with their male colleagues in a not-so-friendly environment. I recall a classic answer given by a leading professional to the question whether selections at top level were fair to the women candidates in consideration. She had replied: ‘To excel among the peer group, a woman has usually to perform twice as well as a man; but then it is not that difficult.’ Ms Sudha Menon has strewn together a gripping account of interesting careers with remarkable skill and in very readable prose. I had the privilege of working with some of the people covered in this book in committees and conferences. My impressions about their calibre and quality are well reflected in this book.”
NARESH CHANDRA
Former Cabinet Secretary and
Indian Ambassador to the USA
“I am glad that I have the opportunity to convey their story and wisdom to help inspire and influence your approach to life and work.”
PREFACE
Writing this book has infinitely changed my life. But if I were to name that one single most important transformation that it has brought about, it is the power to believe that everything is possible, if you can just believe in yourself. Among the many things that I learnt is that a majority of women, no matter what they do or where they live, have a common thread running through their life that makes them bond over the simple things – love, kindness, a basic honesty in relationships and complete commitment to their family and work.
I have been repeatedly asked why I chose to write on this subject. Well-meaning friends cautioned me that the lives of the women in this book have been profiled many times in newspapers, magazines and even books, that people probably know their stories, and enough and more information is now available at one click. My answer to all of them was, clichéd as it sounds, that this book is different – much more than just profiling the success stories of successful Indian women. I was aiming to get to the core of their beings, hoping to find the inner reservoir from which they drew strength to chart their journey, often solitary, sometimes a little frightening because many a time they had no examples or role models to follow, or seek guidance from. Hoping I would be allowed entry into that sanctum sanctorum and given access to the tenets that these women have followed or even created while tackling day-to-day existence. Hoping I would be able to present their personal survival guides and valuable life lessons to the many of us who face similar situations, one time or the other.
Their stories might seem like fairy tales, but none of them came into this world a winner, a picture-perfect being with all the attributes that characterise a diva. Each of them had to fight personal weaknesses, conquer inner demons and brave severe odds to reach where they are today. Some of them are ordinary human beings like you and me who worried they did not have what it takes to accomplish a cherished goal, fought against a system that put them at a disadvantage, and raged when the people around them would not understand their need to go that extra mile. These smart, courageous, no-nonsense and extremely humane women became extraordinary by sheer dint of hard work and the strength of their will power. Theirs are the stories from which each of us can find hope in our hearts and inspiration to follow our dreams, when our battle-weary souls despair.
The women in this book never acknowledged the existence of a gender divide or the proverbial glass ceiling at the work place. Instead, they spent their time with me counting their blessings, their strong belief in the innate goodness of human beings and in karma. They highlighted the importance of strong elders in their lives – who encouraged them to live a life of values, gave them wings to fly and the vision to dream big. Most spoke about the invaluable role of husbands in their journey to a fulfilling career and life. It is necessary for us to believe that our partner is an extraordinary human being, one of them told me. An ailing mother was the reason for another to give up a highly successful career in the US. One woman fought back tears as she spoke of struggling to get back on her feet every time an indifferent system heaped humiliation and disdain on her, as she braved on to bring glory for the country. Yet another spoke about her husband who was diagnosed with cancer just days before we met, emphasising how important it was for her to be there for him during the difficult days of chemotherapy. Others spoke about the privilege of having supportive in-laws who cared enough to be with their children when work took them travelling all over the world.
I am blessed that my subjects, with whom I now feel an unseen bond, gave me the luxury of their time, to allow me to learn so much from each of them. I am glad that I have the opportunity to convey their story and wisdom to help inspire and influence your approach to life and work.
I began work on this book at a time when I had given up a valued 22-year-old career as a journalist. I was vulnerable at that point, a little scared of the future, worried about the uncertainty of not having a monthly pay cheque and life felt a wee bit gloomy.
From the depths of that darkness emerged the idea of this book, which had been rattling around in my head so long that it had become part of my subconscious must-do-before-I-kick-the-bucket list. Over my two decades in journalism I came in touch with many remarkable, successful, accomplished women and each time I put a reminder to myself, in my head, that some day I would go back to meet these women at leisure, to find out more about their lives than have made it to the printed pages.
These generous women took time off frantic work schedules, rare family holidays and cherished alone-time, to share their lives with me. One of them scheduled a few hours of the last day of a precious holiday, just days before sending her daughter abroad to study. A talented woman, still hurting from the unexpected death of her mother, voiced her bewilderment in coping with life’s challenges without her mother’s loving presence and support. Another spoke about the years when she went about feeling inferior because she could not become a mother like other women and a single mother spoke passionately about living life on her terms and letting her children do the same. While talking animatedly about their lives, each one of them was simultaneously interested in me and my personal journey, too. Months after meeting me, each of them remained actively involved in my project, going out of their way to help me tie up all the loose ends and making sure I had a hassle-free run. To all of them, I remain eternally grateful for being my companions-in-arms. I am honoured and privileged to know them so closely.
There are hundreds of similar women across this huge country of ours, doing stellar work, some unsung, some very much in the public eye, who have inspirational words to share. In fact, many of the women in this book themselves told me about so many other women who are doing remarkable work. This book is the first of this enlightening journey and I look forward to coming back with more soul food for our hardened and, sometimes, cynical spirit.
These women taught me that the most important thing for a woman is to follow her heart and live her life with integrity, honour, love and commitment. And if that is done in the best manner possible, it is possible to achieve that most coveted of things – peace of mind.
Like I said, writing this book has changed my life in more ways than I can ever count.
CHAPTER
THE FEMININE WAY
by ELA BHATT
“Women’s leadership needs to be nurtured, since that is the only hope if an inclusive, just society and a sustainable environment are to be created.”
WHAT CAN I say about the women of our country that has not been told before or discussed endlessly before today? Simply this – I believe women are the future of our country, if they can just take themselves seriously, value their own worth a bit more, and leverage their collective strength to make this country and indeed, our world, a better place to live in. Women are the key to nation building and peace building and I believe governments can learn a lot about international relations from them.
Our grihinis don’t know how much of a difference they can make in this world. Right from her birth the only constant in her life is change – growing up in a household where she is possibly not wanted because of her gender, going to her husband’s house and adjusting to the conditions there, and building a new life for herself with complete strangers. At every stage she has to adjust to the new realities of her life. The wonderful thing is that through all these phases of her life she nurtures relationships – with herself, her new family, her neighbours, her community. And she stands up for the weakest member of her family. A woman lives her life through peace and consensus. It is her belief that things can be done with love; there is no need to resort to violence. Governments can learn from women the art of building relationships and creating win-win situations for everyone.
I worry sometimes that we don’t know or don’t have confidence in our collective strength and that we don’t think about the change we can effect. It is time we think about the future we want for ourselves. Have we, as women, for instance, thought about what our stand will be when we take leadership positions in this country? It is pointless if we were to become part of the same systems or sit in the Parliament and become another cog in the same old formal structures made by men. There is nothing feminine about it.
I am convinced that there is a feminine way to do things, which has the potential to change the world. For this, we have to grow at our own pace, so that when we finally get to our chosen destination, nobody can rob us of our shakti. Why did it take Sewa (Self Employed Women’s Association) 30 years to become an organisation of over 1.25 million women? It is because we took our own time to move to where we wanted to reach.
We women have to think harder and deeper about what kind of world we want. We have to think together what our causes will be, what will be our strategies, what will be our relationship with our neighbour Pakistan or with Afghanistan? What will be our policy on globalisation – we have to figure out why the humble farmers in Banaskantha from northern Gujarat can’t directly connect with the farmers of Mexico? What is our stand on the environment? The two major challenges faced by the world’s leaders today are climate change and inclusive development. What is the feminine way to tackle these two issues? We need to include men in our talk once we are serious.
God has privileged us with a nurturing spirit that is constantly concerned about the well-being of our children. We have yet to extend this concern to include the rest of the world and make it our home, instead of keeping ourselves limited to our own four walls. Women are so resilient, so resourceful; they forge their own methods to get ahead with their aspirations. They can do so much more.
I have great faith in the capacity of our women. As chairperson of the National Commission on Self-Employed Women and Women in the Informal Sector, I travelled 17 states and held over 1,400 meetings, talking to women from various trades for the Shram Shakti report. Each time, I was impressed by their aspirations, and their need to somehow achieve their goals. So many of them had been deeply impacted by the life of our former prime minister, Indira Gandhi. They said: if she can do it, so can we. It is very unfortunate that we did not manage to channelise those aspirations and give them a purpose. Today, Sewa is unable to cope with the enormous aspirations of our members – they are so ready, so restless to do more with their lives, grab every opportunity that comes their way. It is both exciting and humbling that the poor rural women, who society thinks of as just people on the sidelines of life, have so much more to contribute to this nation.
A woman’s capacity to work is endless. For her, work is worship, and her very survival. Work, paid or unpaid, keeps her hands and brain constantly active and I believe this is what makes her more robust and a much better fighter against the wrath of nature. When I go into the villages, I often see men who are merely 40-45 years of age sitting around listlessly, depressed because they have either lost a job and want it back, or their skills have been rendered redundant. But in the midst of the worst drought or flood, women do find some work; they find something to eke out a livelihood because they are too much concerned about their family, their children. That concern is the focus of a woman’s entire life and she will not allow herself the luxury of being depressed or lethargic. Single-handedly she strives to pull her family out of bad situations and I believe that collectively they can do that for this nation too.
It is necessary that no matter what section of society she belongs to, every woman has to know three things: one, she has to know her body, how it works, so that nobody can use it or tamper with it against her will. Two, every woman has to have a skill that can generate income for her. This is very important so that she is not dependent on anyone for her survival. And three, every woman should be broadly aware how the democratic structures and institutions of our country work – be it the gram panchayat, the state assembly, the national parliament, or our unions, cooperatives, federations and associations, so that she knows she belongs to them and can some day participate in them. Only when they participate in them can they become part of the mainstream. I have seen this happen with the women joining unions and cooperatives and SHGs (self help groups) in India.
It is Sewa’s strong assertion that our members gradually gain ownership of assets. I have seen that this is the surest step to coming out of poverty. Assets have many forms. That may be her bank balance, a piece of land, shelter, craft tools, cattle, a licence, a share certificate, even a ration card or an identification card. Moreover, it is my lifetime experience that assets are safer in the hands of women than their men. True. I have seen her achieve real empowerment when she manages these assets, her own or of her collective. Managing the resources gives her confidence and strength to stand firm on the ground.
For most of the women from the villages, it was very difficult to just dare to step out of their kitchen and walk to the living space which is usually occupied by the men folk and the elders. From that scenario, walking out of the doors, out of the village and into a town and opening a savings account of their own, having a printed receipt in their hands is in itself a great journey that is hardly recognised. They need support in undertaking this endeavour, but when they do that collectively it is an exhilarating, liberating experience.
To have her own identity, even if it is just in the form of her picture on a bank passbook, or an identity card, or to receive a post card at her home address means the world to a woman. She is no more just a faceless toiler, but a citizen in her own right. For someone who, in all probability, has never been asked what her name is, this is a huge accomplishment.
Our governments have not put their weight and commitment behind making a sustained, well thought-out policy that can leverage the power of our women. Their approach to women, much like the approach to the poor, is sporadic and not enough. Women get the occasional crumbs thrown at them. Their opinions are not sought, their participation is not thought of – so often they look like they are non-existent – on resolving national issues, say, like price rise or Kashmir or compulsive migration. Women’s approach to resolution is bound to be different. I trust women will bring constructive, creative and sustainable solutions to the table.
Yes, I do see women making a breakthrough. But women’s leadership needs to be nurtured, since that is the only hope if an inclusive, just society and a sustainable environment are to be created. Let me explain. In the women’s approach, there are goals but there are also values, the process of unfolding and learning from the process. The feminine has a different sense of time: the work may take whatever time is needed. Sewa has taken 30 years to reach a million people. What I have seen and learnt is this: the feminine way tries to include the whole, waiting for those left behind, even if it means delaying the group or the process. It aims more on end-goal, group over individual, integration over fragmentation.
You would ask me why this is relevant today. The world today needs more feminine leadership, because we face one of the most challenging tasks of transformation of our times. And the feminine is needed not just in the form of more women leaders, but also in the form of men honouring the feminine within them. Feminine leadership is needed to balance the very masculine models that abound, which do not always produce the world we want…. all this is pregnant in women, if women take themselves seriously. For me a woman is the past, the present and the future of our society, and there is no greater strength than that of a group of determined, committed women!
(As told to Sudha Menon)
ELA BHATT is the founder of Sewa (www.sewa.org), a primary trade union with a membership of over 1.25 million poor and self-employed women.
CHAPTER 1
AMRITA PATEL
“Educated women from the cities are letting their village sisters down by not participating in their development.
We need a whole lot of committed women to make a difference to the way their sisters live in villages.”
THIS IS THE unfinished story of the journey of a privileged child who could have had life’s comforts for the asking, but decided instead to live in India’s rural heartlands, working for the simple folk who till their land and live in harmony with nature, along with their treasured animals. Amrita Patel was just 15 when she came to face an India that was far removed from the city that she had grown up in. The teenager, who arrived at her family home in the town of Anand in Gujarat, one day followed her pet dogs’ vet into the village nearby, curious to figure out what he did there. “Till then, I had always thought that a vet’s job was to look after cats and dogs that belonged to families that we knew in New Delhi, where I grew up.”
She had no idea that the trip would etch the roadmap for her life, plucking her out of the cushioned existence of a civil service officer’s daughter and taking her into the smallest villages of the country. “I was blessed that I got to see a village at a very young age. Not many urban youngsters get this chance. In the villages around Anand, I saw farmers, their animals, the symbiotic relationship between man and beast.
“I understood that the life of a farmer depended on the well-being of his animals and that milk was for many the sole source of livelihood. I decided to study veterinary science and come back to work in rural India. In some way, my mission in life was decided very early.”
For over four decades now, Amrita’s life has been defined by her passionate involvement with the development and evolution of the nation’s large and thriving dairy cooperative movement, a period during which India progressed from being a milk-deficient nation to becoming the largest producer in the world. And if she is credited with being part of the handful of people who steered India’s very successful White Revolution, Amrita’s preoccupation with farmers and dairy cooperatives is as intense even today, when, as the chairperson of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), she prepares to take the country through an audacious fourth Operation Flood.
Getting to meet Amrita Patel is a difficult task. Not many would imagine that the woman sitting in her wood-panelled office at NDDB’s headquarters in Anand is busier than perhaps the chief executives of many multinational companies ensconced in their urban offices. The future of thousands of small milk-producing farmers in tiny, forgotten villages depends on her ability to chart a course of action that will include them in the rapid economic development sweeping through India. “It is important that these small farmers also get a share of India’s prosperity.”
The day I arrive in Anand to meet her, Amrita is busy preparing for a series of meetings scheduled with World Bank officials who are in India to discuss financing of the ambitious National Dairy Plan that will significantly increase India’s milk production from the current level of 107 million tonnes to over 180 million tonnes in the next 10-12 years. The World Bank is expected to lend funds for the Rs 173-billion plan to achieve this goal. The success would revolve around increasing productivity of the bovine population, substantially expanding the scope of milk procurement, processing and marketing by covering a larger population of farmers, and creating a skilled talent pool to hand-hold them through the process. For someone in charge of achieving such an important objective, Amrita is remarkably grounded, preferring to keep silent on her work and life because she is convinced it will not interest anyone.
“I am not in business. My business is to put the women in our villages in business so that they can take their families and their community to prosperity.” After much persuasion she relents and talks about her significant journey to the cattle sheds, homes and hearts of India.
It was an unusual career for a woman at that time. Amrita, who was pursuing the science stream in Mumbai, did not have the courage to face her parents with the decision to become a vet instead of a doctor, which was what they hoped she would become. A short telephone call did the job instead, ending with her mother’s distressed cry that no one would ever marry a “horse doctor!” Always a support to his five daughters, Amrita’s father, former finance minister of India, H.M. Patel, decided to stand by her. “We sisters were lucky to be born to a couple who was so progressive. My mother was a simple lady who did not speak English, but she never stopped us from doing the things we wanted to.” But Amrita soon discovered that convincing her parents was the easiest part.
The 21-year-old, back in Anand with a Bachelor’s degree in veterinary science and animal husbandry, she headed enthusiastically to Amul Cooperative, Anand’s largest employer, to meet the legendary Dr Verghese Kurien, then general manager. To her shock and chagrin, Dr Kurien, who eventually went on to become her mentor and guide, turned down her request for a job because the cooperative had a “no women” policy. Disappointed, but unwilling to let go of her dream, she persisted, saying she had the necessary training and insisting on at least an unpaid internship, if not a job.
“In those days Anand town was just one street. Dr Kurien was not unreasonable in refusing to give me a job because even the telephone operator at Amul was a man. But I insisted on being permitted to work in an honorary capacity as the only training I had received in my Mumbai college was on cats and dogs.” Thankfully for Amrita, he agreed to that request and surprised her some four months later by offering a temporary post as an assistant animal nutrition officer at the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited. This was in 1965, at their new cattle feed factory at Kanjari. Even that job came to her because a lady Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) expert, who was arriving to oversee the plant’s commissioning, insisted on having a female Indian counterpart. “Life was difficult at the cattle feed plant, which was located in the wilderness. We had to work under primitive conditions, sometimes even having to relieve ourselves behind the tall thickets of elephant grass as there was no toilet for ladies. In fact, I got to keep my job at the plant indefinitely because newly-recruited male officers would flee soon after seeing the working conditions. When they finally did manage to find a male candidate, he was so uncomfortable with the idea of working with a female that he arranged his desk with his back to me.”
Around this time, Amrita, who was increasingly frustrated with her inability to find permanent employment, applied to a few American universities for post-graduate studies. Her parents were supportive in this initiative too. “It was a big step for them to allow a daughter to go abroad to study at that stage in our history.” She even got admission into one of the universities, but didn’t pursue it because it coincided with an offer from Amul for a two-year, fully-paid FAO fellowship in animal nutrition at the Rowett Research Institute, Aberdeen, UK.
“Dr Kurien convinced me that it would be wiser to take up the Amul offer since going abroad on my own would be a heavy financial burden on my father.” On her return to Anand in end-1968, Amrita worked with the Amul cattle feed plant as part of a three-year bond that she had signed when she accepted the FAO scholarship. But by the end of her bond period, she started feeling stifled by the manner in which the organisation was run.
“I believe in an open and transparent kind of management and I would fume when I found things happening behind my back. When I had completed two years and nine months, I went to Dr Kurien in a huff, telling him I wanted to quit and he said I was free to do so. Only, I would have to pay Rs 30,000 to the organisation for breaking my bond. I decided to finish my term because I simply did not see why I should pay the full amount even though I had worked for almost three years!”
Her career over the next three decades was marked by the turbulent relationship with her mentor, who is hailed as the father of the Indian dairy revolution. It was under his guidance that she rose quickly in the ranks, starting as project assistant with the NDDB in 1971 to becoming its managing director in 1990. In 1998, she succeeded Dr Kurien as chairman, when he stepped down after 33 years with the organisation. In the years to come she invited her mentor’s wrath when she chose a different path than the one he had shown her; she took the dairy cooperative in a direction where it could compete with the private sector, in the post-liberalisation era. It is a mark of her depth of character that not once in the decade since she replaced him has she ever questioned Dr Kurien’s complete commitment to India’s cooperative movement, which is now the beacon for several countries who aspire to replicate the ‘Anand’ model.
“There were different realities in the time that he was steering NDDB. Our farmers need far stronger structures today because they have to fight with the might of the private sector, which is threatening to take away their livelihood from them.”Amrita struggled to keep herself from quitting because she often found herself disagreeing with the way things worked at NDDB. What kept her from walking away was the complete faith that the farmer community in the villages had in her and the work the organisation had undertaken.
In the mid-60s, Amul tried to convince farmers to use factory-made cattle feed pellets instead of the home-made feed made from cooked cotton seed, in order to help increase productivity. It was a challenging task. Amrita would often find the farmers surreptitiously feeding their cattle with cotton seed, even though the pellets were being offered to them for free. It took some years before the farmers were convinced of the advantages.
“One of my happiest memories is when we had to keep the plant closed for a few days and there was much less cattle feed being sent to the villagers. I soon received a postcard from a farmer saying: ‘Ben, when are you re-opening the factory? My buffalo keeps looking in the direction of the factory, waiting for his food.’ That expression of implicit trust by a simple human being made all the hardships seem worthwhile!” Incidents like these reinforced her resolve to work for the benefit of India’s marginalised farming community, a commitment that she keeps even today as chairman of the Foundation for Ecological Security (FES), which works towards the ecological restoration and conservation of land and water resources in the uplands, and other eco-fragile, degraded and neglected zones of the country.
“My commitment began with increasing milk production, but along the way I realised how inter-linked everything is – agriculture, milk production, the creation of sustainable livelihoods for our rural masses. Everything boils down to how well we can conserve our scarce resources. It is an enormous challenge but something each one of us has to take responsibility for.”
Overcoming challenges is almost a way of life for Amrita, who has been her own best teacher at every stage. In 1972 she was appointed assistant director of the International Dairy Congress, an event hosting over 3,000 dairy industry professionals from all over the world. It would be a litmus test for India’s capability to organise an event of this scale as well as an opportunity to showcase the progress being made by the country’s dairy sector.
The job involved re-locating to Delhi. Amrita took it up because her father, who was back in the capital as a Member of Parliament, needed attention due to his poor health. Only she did not envisage that the entire responsibility of organising the Dairy Congress would end up on her plate because several senior people appointed for the task left midway. Left with very little time, Amrita had no option but to pitch in with every resource at her disposal, to ensure the event was conducted smoothly. To her relief it was a great success and a delighted Dr Kurien promptly brought her back to Anand, making her learn the ropes of administration, finance, and human resource management, before promoting her as regional director of NDDB in Delhi and later, as its executive director.
In Delhi, she found herself floundering because of her inexperience – she was in charge of engineering activities and was thrashing around for answers to problems that sprouted all around her. “The extraordinary thing in my life has been that I’ve never had a direct boss at any point in my career. At my first job in the cattle feed factory, I had to learn everything by reading through innumerable files and looking for information from wherever I could find it. Since there was nobody to seek help from, I had to pretend I knew most things when actually I did not know much. At site visits to engineering projects, most of my decisions were based on common sense rather than any engineering expertise. It was tough, but never having a boss forced me to learn fast.”
In the late 1970s, NDDB officials realised that while they were investing heavily in breeding and feeding projects that would improve the productivity of the bovine population, their efforts were being negated by the endemic foot-and-mouth disease which affected cattle. They decided to bring in technology from an overseas partner and set up a plant that would produce the vaccine to counter this problem.
Just days before the proposed partners for the project, UK’s Wellcome Foundation, arrived, Amrita was informed she would be in charge of negotiations. “I was horrified. I had no experience with negotiations and believed I could blow up the plan with my ignorance and inexperience.” The only concession that Dr Kurien gave was to assign a lawyer to assist her. With barely a week in hand to finalise the terms on which India would receive the technology, Amrita yet again had to depend on her wits to save the situation. Only, it turned out to be far more difficult.
“The British company started by treating India as some third world country and wanted to take responsibility for putting bricks and mortar together because they did not think we had any expertise. I, of course, protested. The situation became tougher every day. Dr Kurien was camping in Delhi and I would have to meet him at lunch and in the evenings, to report on the progress. He would fire me for giving in to some of their demands and insist that I go back and correct the damage. I would put on a brave front in his presence, but as soon as I was in my car to go back to the meeting, I would be weeping copiously and would then have to pull myself together for another round of negotiations. Dr Kurien could have done it himself, but his strategy was that if he went to the negotiation table first and talks failed we would have lost an opportunity, but if I were to fail he could always step in and work something out.”
Things deteriorated steadily. “Not much progress was made, and in the afternoon of the third day the leader of the British team threw his hands up and said: ‘I see no point in going any further and I do not even have anything very pretty to look at in front of me.’” At this point Amrita brought the discussion to a close, walked out of the room and headed straight to the British High Commission where she insisted on meeting the High Commissioner himself. “I told him that he could ask the British team to leave the country since I had no intention of conducting any more discussions with them. Chagrined, he calmed me down and said he would look into the matter.”
Still smarting from the incident, Amrita reported her action to Dr Kurien, who had by then gone back to Anand. “He said: ‘It is all very well complaining about them, but I hope you do realise that this project is happening at the instance of the prime ministers of both our countries.’ To which I told him that it was his problem, not mine!” A few days later, a defiant Amrita accompanied Dr Kurien to the UK to sort out the matter with the chairman of Wellcome Foundation himself. “He was a lovely man – Sir Alfred Shepherd. He listened very carefully to what I had to say about the experience I had gone through. He said that he would not have accepted it if something like this had happened to his own daughter. Moreover, before I returned to India, he gave me the opportunity to select a person from amongst three executives who he considered suitable for the task.”
Amrita returned with an executive from Wellcome Foundation and things sailed smoothly, thereafter. Indian Immunologicals, the plant that was commissioned in the early eighties, is today the largest production facility for animal vaccines in Asia. “But the entire experience was a nightmare. When I was going through it, I thought Dr Kurien was brutal in exposing me to such an experience, but the ordeal beat me into shape. It was learning by fire that toughened me up for life. That was how my father taught me to swim. He would let go of me when I was in the middle of the pool and I had no option but to thrash around till I learnt to swim! Today, this biological plant we set up seems like the best thing we did for the sector.”
It was during her stint at NDDB’s Delhi office that she developed a deeper understanding of the cooperative movement in the dairy sector and how progressive Gujarat had been in encouraging the growth of a grassroots-level cooperative structure in pre-independence India. Early in her career with NDDB, she also realised that the bureaucracy in various states was opposed to the setting up of cooperatives since these were perceived as threats to their authority.
“When NDDB was formed, we went to each state asking for a portion of their dairy budget to replicate the Anand experiment. The powers-that-be gave preference to a structure that would be set up by their own government cooperative and dairy departments. This was self-defeating, because it would wrest control away from the producer-farmers. It was only when NDDB generated its own money – through the sale of European aid in the form of butter and milk powder – to finance the setting up of 16 ‘Anands’ in the hinterland of the four metro markets, that we were able to kick off the first phase of Operation Flood.” During the last few decades, the dairy cooperative movement has spread to thousands of villages across 22 states of India, covering more than 14 million farmer-members. And in doing so, it has catalysed a social change that no other development initiative anywhere else in the world has been able to effect. This movement has ensured that small farmers living in abject poverty benefit from a structure that gives them a share in the nation’s progress.
In tiny villages across the country, the status of women has gone up within the family and their communities as they increasingly participate in dairying, while the men folk manage their farming activities. Being in charge of an income-generating activity has given women a better chance at nurturing their families and managing health, nutrition and hygiene issues at home.
For several years now, Amrita has been a keen proponent of giving women fair representation in the village cooperatives, insisting they bring to their work a commitment and integrity that is unmarred by personal agenda or ambitions.
“Women are concerned first about the well-being of their families. Since they are the ones who milk and feed their cows or buffaloes, they are also the best people to adapt any new technology that will help increase productivity. We need to prepare them for governance and educate them in making business plans for their village cooperative. This is more important than advocating reservations for them. It is now amply evident that social transformation is being brought about in the villages where there are more women in the cooperatives. More girl children go to school in these villages because the women want to give their daughters the opportunities that they never had.”
Amrita’s efforts in this direction are gradually bringing change – as against just 12 per cent in 1987, women form 26 per cent of the membership in cooperatives today; the goal, as envisaged in the National Dairy Plan, is to reach 50 per cent. “A social transformation must come from these women. Dairying is her business. If she feeds her cow or buffalo, milks them, why can’t she also run the business?”
Amrita insists that women in urban India can help drive this change by involving themselves more in the lives and businesses of rural India. “Educated women from the cities are letting their village sisters down by not participating in their development. I see so many women professionals come with good intentions, but they don’t stay long, either because they can’t cope, or owing to other personal reasons. We need many more learned women to drive this change. Another way is to develop the women who live and work in the villages. Nothing can be more liberating for a woman than having a say in matters which concern her family and her immediate environment.”
In a personal capacity, away from her responsibilities at NDDB, Amrita has committed herself to this task. As chairperson of the Charutar Arogya Mandal, a trust that runs an integrated multi-specialty hospital in rural Gujarat, she makes sure that timely treatment is available to any needy person, particularly village women. “There is so little value in the villages for the life of a woman. Often, she is just not brought into the hospital for treatment because the man says the family buffalo is so attached to her that she won’t let down her milk if the woman is not there! I have seen women come into our gynaecology ward with a haemoglobin count of two because they are unable to pay attention to their own nutrition.” At the hospital, women are presented the bill for their treatment and simply asked to pay whatever they can afford in the hope that this at least will encourage the men to bring them into the hospital for their delivery. “Very often she has to deliver at home, and if something untoward were to happen to her during childbirth, the man simply says he will get himself another wife.”
Faced with such realities, Amrita has little choice but to spend her spare time from work in the endless task of garnering support and funds to finance the hospital’s needy patients. “From 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. I am a very rich woman, but from 6 p.m. to 9 a.m. I am a beggar,” she says of the time she spends approaching potential donors to seek their help in running the hospital. While the trust that she chairs also manages small and panchayat hospitals in rural areas, Amrita’s mission is to set up reasonably-priced satellite hospitals in smaller towns closer to the villages, so that patients don’t have to travel long distances.
In addition, the trust has a Social Security Scheme. For Rs 90 a year, a person can get free treatment up to Rs 5,000. Today the membership has touched 50,000. “The burden caused by medical bills is killing. Frequently farmers have to sell off their animals to access medical treatment which, in effect, takes away their very source of livelihood.”
Despite a life-long commitment to the cause of dairy cooperatives and the fate of the farmer community, the last few years have seen her increasingly question the relevance of the cooperative structure as it exists today. The 14-million-strong movement has become a lucrative vote bank for political parties who have slowly moved in to capture these structures. Elections to the cooperatives – even in its birthplace, Gujarat – are stiffly-contested events.
Increasingly disillusioned with the system where the farmer members have little say in the functioning of these institutions, Amrita has been relentlessly pushing for a change that will give back control and ownership to the farmers, and also bring about the realisation that they need professionals to manage the business. The advent of liberalisation has brought fresh challenges in its wake as private players are now entrenched in the dairy sector with huge investments and processing facilities. “In just ten years, the private sector has set up processing capacities that took cooperatives 35 years. When I saw what was happening, I went to meet then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and told him that millions of farmers were earning a livelihood from milk and that the dairy cooperatives needed flexibility and a level playing field to compete with the rapidly growing private sector. I requested him to give them a legislation that would facilitate their transformation into ‘cooperative companies’ as was the case in the developed countries.”
In 2003, legislation was passed introducing a new chapter in the Companies Act, which is a Central Act unlike the Cooperative Societies Act, to form a Producer Company which is in effect an entity that combines the discipline and transparency required of a company with the essential principles of a cooperative. While the Cooperative Act, as it exists, does not demand the kind of governance and systems that modern business requires, the producer company model allows cooperatives to bring in professionals on their board to guide them in critical areas such as management, finance and marketing, thus strengthening their abilities to compete as equals with the private sector businesses. The producer company, if it is a producer- supply company to start with, will also give producers the freedom to pool and sell their milk to whoever gives them the best price, without having to deal with the complexities of processing milk.
Under the producer company structure, a village can have a number of milk producer institutions, allowing for homogenous groups based on caste, income and other factors to come together and become members.
“It is a myth that the evil of caste has been drowned in the cooperative milk collection centres of rural India. We might allow a lower caste farmer to pool his milk with the rest of the village and get an income, but the truth is he will never be elected chairman, even if he is educated. Milk can never get rid of caste, so one way is to provide for groups to be formed based on their similarities; by increasing their contribution of milk in the business they will have a say in decision-making.”
While she considers the role in pushing the Producer Companies Act to be her most noteworthy achievement, Amrita’s greatest sorrow today is that the concept is still to be adopted by the dairy cooperatives.
“When I went to meet Dr Kurien – he himself had been a supporter of this concept – around the time the legislation was being passed by Parliament, to suggest that the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation seriously consider shifting from a cooperative to a producer company (and this is possible if two-thirds of the General Body passes a resolution supporting it) he, for reasons known only to himself, did not agree. Had he taken this step in 2003, the milk cooperatives in other states would have followed and today we would have had far greater professionally-run cooperative institutions with lesser government control. But milk is the only business which touches the lives of people in the villages twice a day, every day of the year, and so cooperatives are a critical vote bank that political parties will like to control.”
NDDB has initiated the setting up of village-level milk-producer institutions in eight states. These institutions can form themselves into producer companies when they are ready to do so in the near future, but Amrita’s labour of love is a long way from being realised.
Often, she is tempted to give up in despair but is kept from doing so by the memory of her father, who she remembers as a person who stuck to his path despite the biggest odds – the main reason why she aggressively continues to promote the concept, which is slowly taking root. “When things seem an uphill task, my motto is to keep trying. You will succeed in bits and parts, but don’t despair and don’t give up.”
Her life has been an expedition of hope in the face of seemingly endless hurdles. It is the story of a human being driven by her commitment towards the lesser privileged. And if it makes an inspiring story, it is because of Amrita’s determination to stick to certain principles and values that she won’t compromise on, even if they sometimes cause her to despair. “My integrity is completely non-negotiable and if this requires me to swim against the tide and question the establishment, so be it. In a country where things are only done speedily if money gets paid under the table, I have always refused to do so, because the moment you say yes to this, you are saying corruption is acceptable. At NDDB, I always tell our new recruits that speed is not something we want in our projects, if it is at the cost of integrity. We don’t believe in running this organisation by bribing. Instead, even if it is an agonising process, we just find ways to convince people to help us get our job done.”
Her determination to lead a principled life has often resulted in situations of conflict, but she has carried on, nevertheless. A few years ago, Amrita took on the might of the Medical Council of India (MCI) when it dragged its feet over giving official recognition to the medical college attached to the trust-run hospital in Gujarat. Amrita refused to accede to MCI officials’ demand for Rs 5 million and waged a two-year-long battle with the council, dragging the issue to the Ministry of Health. Eventually she was vindicated when the latter directed the MCI to grant recognition to the college.
“The parents of the students studying at our facility kept pressurising me to pay the inspectors, but I refused, saying that it is not ethical for an educational institution to pay bribe. What kind of example would we set for the doctors who would graduate from it? Our college is today one of the finest facilities in the country, but continues to suffer because it has not succumbed to practices that most others consider quite normal.”
During a 2008 meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, she told him that she was waiting for her retirement because she was finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the growing corruption. “His reply was: You cannot give up. We must continue to fight it.” Soon thereafter, Amrita was given yet another five-year term as chairman.
A rare ability to stick to her convictions has been the hallmark of Amrita’s life. In the mid-90s Amrita earned Dr Kurien’s wrath over her decision to build marketing alliances with dairy cooperatives in various states. It was a difficult phase in Amrita’s life – she had spent the better part of her career learning about dairy cooperatives under Dr Kurien’s mentoring – but that did not stop her from doing what she believed was good for the cooperatives.“I was doing what I thought was the best way to professionalise the cooperatives and help them in their marketing efforts. This would give them a better chance to compete with the private sector in a liberalised market. Dr Kurien’s aggressive campaign to prevent this made us more determined to pursue the setting up of producer companies instead.” With just 20 per cent of Indian villages covered by the cooperative sector, Amrita has a humungous task ahead of her; one that she believes must be addressed. “India’s economic development also depends on the small, marginalised, milk-producing farmers in our villages. It is imperative that we look after their interests.”
Amrita hopes that new-generation cooperatives or producer companies have a significant role to play in ensuring that these farmers are part of the larger development process of the country. “We have only just started the producer company model and I am hoping this small spark will bring about a big change. Producers need to be educated more and must have a say in their business. NDDB is working on an institutional structure for the producer company model, which will make members of cooperatives more conscious of their rights and their responsibilities. Only an enlightened member who understands the long-term implications can take this movement forward.”