‘ Impact Hour ‘ 15 With Late Kandukuri Veeresalingam Pantulu 1848 – 1919

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Written By Sahithi Divi

I walked into the ancient hallway through the gates of a home that was nestled amidst the history seeking to speak about the famously named prophet of modern Andhra Pradesh born in Rajahmundry – Rao Bahadur Kandukuri Veeresalingam Pantulu (16 April 1848 – 27 May 1919). The man who published an exclusive women’s journal to raise awareness against social evil practices against girl/women through his literature.

During the phase of my life where I am still being questioned for working in the area of gender equality, the visit to this historical home reassured me to hold on to the dream of setting people free. He lost his father at a very young age while his uncle held the responsibility of his education. After his matriculation he began his first job as a teacher in a village called Koringa. He got married at the age of 15 while his bride was still 9 at that time.

As he was a scholar in literature , he used words as his weapons to revolt against the suppressing customs around women. He is a literary activist who was the first person to have the Telugu novel published. Through his writings to various leaders one can gauge the energy he consumed from the unfair practices hailing in the Telugu society then. I was astonished by his unparalleled conviction for women education which also further became a prior reason for his established of school.

Kandukuri Veeresalingam Pantulu , published an exclusive magazine for women criticising the loop holes and evil practices against women in the society like early marriage, education for women, widow remarriage, Kanyasulakam which mean bride with a price and he also opposed marriage of old men with young girls. Viveka Vardhini was a journal for women education in 1887 and Satihita bodhini a monthly magazine for women were the ideas which laid foundation for a progression in relevance to even the 21st century.

To be a part of the beginning laid by him and for continuing to empower women , the visit to his ancestral home that displays his writings and an installation of the widow remarriage made a very deep impact on my conviction by adding the most bright pages of history in benefit of girls/ women to my life.

Written By Sahithi Divi ( source : http://www.impactscientist.com )

‘IMPACT HOUR’ With Pooja Agarwal

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Written By Sahithi Divi as told by Pooja Agarwal

Non Profit Social Entrepreneur, Social Impact Leader, Volunteer Influencer, Ted x speaker

Pooja is a young social impact leader in her early twenties who is unlocking the creativity of hundreds of children from low income schools. She has founded an NGO called AIKAARTH with strong vision of providing art education of all forms ( painting, sports, culinary skills etc. ) to children from under resourced schools having a bottom line impact on their abilities. She has curated a platform to resource skilled volunteers in various art fields to train the children under a planned curriculum which is now expanding into a measurable offering with continued support networks.

As a child she indulged in patriotism that left her curiosity and passion looking for something beyond the boundaries of social walls. She recognised empathy as a child. She looks back to the time when people’s trouble challenged her peace of mind as a kid. She enjoyed that anxiety and allowed it to grow by providing her thoughts a direction. Direction does not occur phenomenally, it happens like a movement. Overall development of a girl child is untapped and overlooked. That is why as a woman it is hard to contemplate for choices while fighting social discrimination. Her dream was to be socially useful.

Exploring of one’s overall personality and providing diverse conditions is an important resource for a teenage girl especially whose emotional environment is partially allowed to expose to human rights on power with that of boys. Although the pressure narrative is widely different for men, a women’s is still prone to the risk of a man’s internal acceptance of spending on her growth. Moving to undergrad education was a tremendous compromise to her interest in journalism.

Unaffected of the setbacks she paramount feedback from life as learnings and bounced back with a project of 121 children receiving distinct workshops followed by her experience as a teach India fellow. This widened her vision into sectors and moved her towards a more focus centric approach. Evolution of demand with experience of empathy interviews or volunteering projects are solely the moments of impact which help us in deciding the next step while partnerships help in shaping up the timelines.

Taking the first step and continuing to fight back is the best thing I have done for myself , she says.

Her vision grew larger, when she started to think about how many people has she really inspired. When her project kicked off , she began to see the ripple effects of doing social good in a structured way. Her dream now is to create leaders who can lead the vast forefront. She also speaks about the importance of receiving support from family is vital for the best output. Although there might be a resistance from family due to social stigma yet always begin the change from inside. Her parents who once protected her from cultural atrocities are now advocating for girl education actively.

She defines Democracy as not yet the best, Women as yet to be empowered and Equality as does not exist. Through her work she is promoting Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education, Goal 8 – Decent work and economic growth and Goal 17- Partnerships for the goals.

Pooja resides her story with charisma of rough rides that did more good than evil to her. Through her strong love towards her cause , she remains a glorious example for millennials to set a course of direction into social impact leadership.

Written By Sahithi Divi as told by Pooja Agarwal ( source : http://www.impactscientist.com )

‘ IMPACT HOUR ‘ With Dhaassyam Geetha Bhascker

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Written By Sahithi Divi as told by Dhaassyam Geetha Bhascker

Mother, Actor, Teacher, Author, Social Worker, Life Skills Coach

Walking into tranquil silence of beauty, hustling through the ultimately dreamful ambience , I was bewildered at the warmth spread across every corner of her home. Cutting through social compassion, she proudly turns back at her childhood for brewing her life time learnings and package them to restore for today’s generation.

Born in an orthodox family to diverse parents, she wished for a voice inside her that could take stance for her. She sought after a chance to platform her inner voice. ” Every child must have the luxury to”, she says. A child is moulded by the stages of his life and influence of dutiful values. Facing criticism due to the social pressure of being a girl in the first place, she also enjoyed constant disappearance of individualism as a child. She translated ugly, good and uncertain words into a life of substance and provided an inclusive land of dreams for her family as a woman. Hailing from a patriarchal society which polices the physical characteristics of a person , she even walked pass the times when she resisted love from finding its real place as a kid for long. This led to a close partnership with her mom who was also her best friend. Geetha garu laughs, ” although my dad needs me for every little thing today”.

“Motherhood is like an art and art can be pushed not tamed”, while mentioning her son as her most priceless ornament……!

Geetha garu is currently working as a visual arts teacher and acted in films like Fida and Ee Nagaraniki Emaindi. Began her career in the advertisement field, she rises above the decisions made for her. Eight years of lag in the technology industry outdated her relevance to continue where she left in her career. Time for self reflection occurred to her as a young mother whose soul was on fire to find her place again and again from what ever was thrown at her. This internally changed her role as parent towards a brilliant horizon. She converted bundles of conspiring opportunities into a new start as an art teacher. ” Every mother can use motherhood as qualification to find her place in times of disruptive paradigm”. she strongly expressed adding that ” every child is born for the society “. She has authored a book called ‘Destiny’s Child’ on her parenting chapters.

Emotional temperament is a pavilion of lock outs. Precisely respect your heart’s desire because the habit of self love is underrated as it can tell you when to leave a place where you don’t belong to. The world ultimately loves the person who loves oneself.

She amplifies the need for every individual independent of gender to participate in creating a Home that promotes friendship, innovation and teamwork in order to celebrate and grow with each other. Being a woman is challenging she says explaining me how she faced the most draining situations in her life due to the stigma attached to a woman who lost her husband. Habit is the most hardest thing to let go which can create a major influence on one’s life. She truly believes in the power of women supporting each other for a sustainably progressive world. Willing to collaborate for contributing her services in areas of ‘ Widow Empowerment ‘ that is surrounded by rottening stigma which suppresses the potential of a woman due to the absence of her other half. Every woman who has to go through the experience of loosing her life partner needs the whole society to emotionally insure her instead of producing new doubts at her capacity to make an impact.

When asked about defining Gender she said it does not exist, Democracy as your right, Mother as a creator and Time as patience. Leaving me to nurture in her wonderful conversation, she brought light and broke stereotypes. Her work aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 4 of Quality Education. Impact Scientist is looking forward to associating with her in maximising the impact for women.

Written By Sahithi Divi as told by D Geetha Dhaassyam Bhascker ( source : http://www.impactscientist.com )

‘IMPACT HOUR’ With Gabriela Lazzer Poit

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Written By Sahithi Divi as told by Gabriela Lazzer Poit ( Gabi )

Gabi – Social Entrepreneur, Doula, House Management Volunteer, Social Worker

#impacthourbysahithi ( When asked about her moments of change, abstracts from the life stories of people she met during volunteering, courage and love and a lot more )

Gabi who is a Brazilian and Italian by nationality has grown up spending most of her life in Sao Paulo also currently resides there. She speaks Portuguese, English and Italian languages out of which she misses to speak english the most now. Gabi studied bachelors in business and choose to do her masters in social entrepreneurship from San Fransisco and later graduated from London. Inspired towards self discovery her journey continued in Italy and now finally back to Sao Paulo where she is enriching herself by emotionally empowering mothers before , during and after the pregnancy as a Doula.

In my conversation about self discovery she said, ” You will never find yourself completely until you die, as life transpires each day and so do we. Everything will happen as it was suppose to be. But even if not nice, self enlightenment is a great learning “. She discovers change in every moment that impacts her. Being open to change after-all diversifies our attitude.

Gabi experienced her sister’s pregnancy very closely during which she potentially saw and enraged on capacity draining times faced by a woman while creating an other human life. She explains how drastically it provocated her to use her voice and skill to emotionally vitalise a person during the most life absorbing ride of every woman’s story. She was affected by the vulnerability with which women come to hospitals and sometimes even have no clue about how to face the violence and child birth together. As a doula also promotes natural birth and creates awareness about mental wellness during pregnancy.

I know that she finds it hard to let go the missing feeling of people but always finds a way to do something better from that feeling. Her volunteering story is heartening to learn, especially her time in South Africa when she herself found it challenging to soak into an extremely different social structure. Humbled in the teachings she got from the life story of a 75 year old woman she met who was physically abused by four young boys the night before. She also narrates her memories from the twenty days of volunteering on boat to the remote Amazon villages deprived of basic healthcare or even emergency services.

Her research clearly defines that, as a volunteer one must use design thinking to understand the long term affects of short term social solutions.

She amplifies her life experience into words and says, ” Every woman must take the courage to give time to things that can help us grow as an individual, as it is very easy to loose ourself in the allocated time to us as a woman. Courage to speak up for the things that can define us as a person can make all the difference in the world, it did to me. ” she said.

Gabi’s association with India captivated with our friendship four years ago in San Fransisco at Hult International Business School. We have been through the simulation of social crisis together and learnt about impact innovation with resonating views from different geographies. After an immaculate year of learning we moved to our respective countries. During her visit to India she left her soul wandering here. Gabi is now building to scale her services as Doula , even use this skill to benefit India on a large capacity and bring natural birth back to India at one point.

Her story and work align with Sustainable Development Goal 3 of Healthcare centrally. Looking forward to transform our friendship into a collaboration which can impact the world.

Written by Sahithi Divi as told by Gabriela Poit ( source : http://www.impactscientist.com )

You Too Have A Role In Rise Of FEMINISM

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Written By Sahithi Divi

Gender Inequality is multidimentional socio economic issue which need both policies in place as well as the personal mindshift of every individual. It is spread across the corners in disguise. Gender Equality cannot be provided as a service or product. It is a change in the way of thinking and more like cultivating a natural habit of treating an other person equally. Rise of words like women empowerment and feminism is a result of dominating outdated beliefs which are unparallel to current social structures where women are breaking the glass shell around them.

Let us look at the Gender Statistics for India

Gender Inequality Index Rank – 132 out of 187 countries
Female Male Sex Ratio – 930 out of 1000 males
No. of childmarriages in a day – 39000 girls
No. of women with NO bank accounts – 80%
Percentage of women in labour force – 28% compared to men which is 82%
Literacy rate of women – 66%
Women suffering sexual or physical voilence – 1 in 3
Percentage of women in parliament – 11%
Working women in unorganised sector – 95%
No. of teen mothers per year – 16 Million
Percentage of girls able to use sanitary napkins – 16%

While navigating the young minds of our daughters, gender roles are centered towards family and wellness. Growing up to certain unreal fascination, childhood remains the most influencial part of everyone’s life. This directly affects the behavioural incompetence and confusion in choosing roles to play. Elimination process is conducted by the parent, partner or children for the women. This is also called Patriarchy !

Unlearning is the factor of importance in tackling gender inequality. Leadership to advocate against constructed bias will influence change. Gender inequality has the power to destroy healthy and sustainable ecosystems. Women who have the gift of being able to reproduce , must not be undermined to emotional duties dictated by someone. Self initiative by each of us will bring a collective movement that will enforce each person to restructure their homes and surroundings.

Fuck Off Patriarchy

Click Here To Take The Gender Pledge

Written By Sahithi Divi

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Let us look at the Gender Statistics for India

Fuck Off Patriarchy

Click Here To Take The Gender Pledge

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