(1/14) The World Bank’s 2017 report titled ‘Precarious Drop’ pointed out how nearly 20 million Indian women were ‘missing’ from the workforce during 2004-2012.

(2/14) While media reports and headlines might have put the onus on women themselves, it is hard to ignore that there are many challenges that hinder women from rejoining the workforce post a career-break taken for several reasons, including childbirth.
(3/14) Out of those who manage to rejoin the workforce, many women eventually drop out in less than 6 months. This was due to “lack of awareness about inclusivity” in corporate offices in the ’90s, points out Dr Saundarya, someone who chose to be the solution to this problem.
(4/14) Having experienced all the challenges of a returning female professional, she founded Avtar in 2000, as a diversity and inclusion platform that helps women get a second shot at building their careers.
(5/14) And, recently, in November 2020, she expanded her focus through MyAvtar — a job portal for people from marginalised backgrounds, to include the LGBTQ+ community as well.
(6/14) “These are women who are no strangers to the workplace – they have worked, been in the corporate environment before and then for a variety of reasons, decide (or are forced to) drop off.
(7/14) They need a lot of support – their skills need to be honed, their confidence re-built, and a sense of community created,” says Dr Saundarya.

However, starting such a platform that celebrates diversity and inclusivity was no easy task.
(8/14) Even after starting India’s first career service for women – Avtar I-WIN, in 2005, she realised that women were not encouraged to pursue a career or carve out individual identities, which contributed to the substantial workforce drop-offs.
(9/14) “Even as we convinced organisations to relook at their hiring and create more welcoming workplaces, we also felt that the intentionality was missing in many women. We asked ourselves this hard question — do women really make the most of it when given opportunities?
(10/14) The answer lay in intentional career pathing. This is a technique that helps women manage both the half-circles of their life,” she says.

It's this principle of creating career paths through inspiration & encouragement that separates Avtar from any other job portal.
(11/14) It is not about sending regular job alerts or flooding one’s mailbox with numerous unsuitable job opportunities, but about curating the best fits and guiding them through the process until they are placed in satisfactory positions.
(12/14) With this vision in practice, the 52-year-old social entrepreneur started with 480 women and has now touched the lives of over 40,000 women, helping them rediscover themselves and their careers successfully.
(13/14) Through her passion and perseverance, Dr Saundarya chose to change the narrative and rightly became part of the solution to empower women and the marginalised in society.
(14/14) Is your business making sensible and responsible decisions — be it empowering the marginalised, protecting the environment, or creating innovative products? Take a pledge to be on a #PathWithPurpose

Brought to you by @TheBetterIndia in association with @AccentureIndia

More from Finance

Having made over 1000 boxes for vulnerable families in Cambridge via @RedHenCambridge (thanks to our customers 🙏🏽) My thoughts on the £30 box thing. Lots of factors at play here. 1/

If the pics in this @BootstrapCook thread are true and correct then the Govt/taxpayers & families in need are getting absolutely SHAFTED 👇🏽 2/


There are some mitigating circumstances. A £30 box won’t ever contain £30 (retail) worth of food - people aren’t factoring in
-the cost of the box
-paying someone to fill it
-rent & rates
-& most expensive the *transport/distribution*

3/

If you’re doing the above at scale. Delivering *across the UK* it’s not cheap BUT IMHO there should be at LEAST £20 worth of groceries in a £30 box. To get more value they need more fresh produce. Just carrots & apples is terrible. 4/

I’m gonna put my rep on the line here & say something about these big national catering companies whose names I’ve seen mentioned. They are an ASSHOLE to deal with & completely shaft small businesses like mine with their terms which is why I won’t deal with them. 5/

You May Also Like

Recently, the @CNIL issued a decision regarding the GDPR compliance of an unknown French adtech company named "Vectaury". It may seem like small fry, but the decision has potential wide-ranging impacts for Google, the IAB framework, and today's adtech. It's thread time! 👇

It's all in French, but if you're up for it you can read:
• Their blog post (lacks the most interesting details):
https://t.co/PHkDcOT1hy
• Their high-level legal decision: https://t.co/hwpiEvjodt
• The full notification: https://t.co/QQB7rfynha

I've read it so you needn't!

Vectaury was collecting geolocation data in order to create profiles (eg. people who often go to this or that type of shop) so as to power ad targeting. They operate through embedded SDKs and ad bidding, making them invisible to users.

The @CNIL notes that profiling based off of geolocation presents particular risks since it reveals people's movements and habits. As risky, the processing requires consent — this will be the heart of their assessment.

Interesting point: they justify the decision in part because of how many people COULD be targeted in this way (rather than how many have — though they note that too). Because it's on a phone, and many have phones, it is considered large-scale processing no matter what.