About

WOMEN’S VISION 2022

WHAT WOMEN WANT: RECLAIMING THE NARRATIVE

A Charter For Today’s Women:

Don’t do this, don’t wear that, don’t go there…It’s not easy being an Indian woman. She can be a domestic goddess or a corporate high-flier, single or a mother, rich or poor, modern or traditional, but her life at each moment is divided between contradictory demands and expectations. Caught between aspiration and anxiety, fear and freedom, choice and coercion, prejudice and progress, hope and happiness—her fight for freedom is far from over. As the clock starts running on the countdown to India’s 75th Independence Day, a dialogue on what women want (and need) from the nation

As a media group concerned with women’s lives at all levels--political, economic, social and cultural—the Outlook Group has decided to dig into WHAT WOMEN WANT through its annual SPEAKOUT event, involving 25 well-known and progressive women from across the nation. The point is to draw up a CHARTER OF DEMANDS for today’s women, keeping the 75th anniversary of the nation's Independence in mind. With the thought-leaders with us, we propose to take up a signature campaign, before submitting the CHARTER to the Ministry of Women, Government of India.

The motto we believe in: RESIST. RECLAIM. REJOICE

Reclaiming the right to enjoy health & hygiene

Today’s evidence

  • —57.6 per cent of Indian women use sanitary napkins, 48.5% in rural, 77.5% in urban (National Family Health Survey 2015–16)
  • —51% women between age 15 and 49 are anaemic, rural as well as urban (Global Nutrition Report, 2017)

Tomorrow’s agenda

  • Create community nutrition advocates
  • Design SMS-driven healthcare toolkits on nutrition, hygiene and family planning to reach every household
  • Offer innovative Insurance models for preventive healthcare for women

Reclaiming the right to be safe & secure

Today’s evidence

  • —Crime against women have surged 83% between 2007 and 2016 (NCRB), or about 39 crimes every hour
  • —4 in 5 women face public harassment, wolf-whistling to groping, stalking or rape. —170% rise in recorded cases of sexual harassment at the workplace from 2006
  • —Every third Indian woman suffers sexual and physical violence at home (National Crime Records Bureau; WCD)

Tomorrow’s agenda
  • Include compulsory self-defence classes in schools and colleges
  • Use real-time digital data mapping to uncover safe and unsafe areas for women
  • Introduce wearable safety and tracking devices for women linked to cell phones

Special Guests

Actor & Politician

Khushbu Sundar

Once a child actor in Bollywood, Khushbu Sundar was reborn as a star in southern movies, with temples to idlis named after her by charmed fans. Four decades of triumphs and trials, controversies and celebrations, have made her a mover and shaker on the national political stage and one of the most outspoken voices against sexism, misogyny and women’s safety.

Khushbu Sundar

Actor & Politician

Women’s Rights Activist

Zakia Soman

Zakia Soman is a women's rights activist and co-founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, an autonomous body that advocates the rights of Muslim women. Soman was actively involved in the movement for abolishing the triple talaq. She is also the founder of Centre for Peace Studies, that is involved in knowledge activism for tolerance, diversity and rights of minorities. In 2014, she received the Outstanding Women Achievers Award by the National Commission for Women. In 2015, she was featured in the BBC's 100 Fearless Women list.

Zakia Soman

Women’s Rights Activist

Paralympic Athlete

Deepa Malik

Diagnosed with a spinal tumour, Deepa Malik was given a choice of death or life in a wheelchair. She chose to transcend her disability, becoming the first Indian woman to win a Paralympics (Rio 2016). An avid biker, she also rode across nine Leh-Ladakh passes.

Deepa Malik

Paralympic Athlete

Entrepreneur

Jagi Mangat Panda

As the chairperson of the Confederation of Indian Industry (East), Jagi Mangat Panda, has cracked one of the highest and hardest glass ceilings, being the first woman to hold such a post. But the MD of Ortel Communications in Odisha, has been reinventing the game, stride by stride, for the last two decades: she has built from scratch a broadband and broadcasting company that today is an undisputed leader in the Odisha TV space.

Jagi Mangat Panda

Entrepreneur

Author, Screenwriter and Columnist

Advaita Kala

Advaita Kala is a best-selling novelist and an award-winning screenwriter. Unique to her writing is the ability to cross genres. She has written for prime-time television, film scripts, fiction and numerous columns in leading publications on a range of issues, from politics to women’s rights. Her film and literary work have focused on female empowerment and experience. She was chosen as one of the 100 Women Achievers by the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare in 2016.

Advaita Kala

Author, Screenwriter and Columnist

Politician

Sushmita Dev

Sushmita Dev is the president of All India Mahila Congress. She was a member of the 16th Lok Sabha from the constituency of Silchar in Assam. She studied law at the University of Delhi and King's College, London. As a parliamentarian, she launched a petition to make sanitary napkins tax free.

Sushmita Dev

Politician

Diplomat (Retd)

Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa

Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa has been a distinguished career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. She was the first Indian woman to be appointed Ambassador to the Gulf State of Qatar during the Arab Spring. She has served in Japan, Sweden, Latvia, Republic of Marshall Islands, China, Switzerland and The Netherlands. While with the Ministry of External Affairs, she has held the charge of Joint Secretary responsible for Indian relations with the United Nations and its agencies. She has worked extensively on issues relating to human rights, disarmament and environment.

Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa

Diplomat (Retd)

Trans Rights Activist

Laxmi Narayan Tripathi

Laxmi Narayan Tripathi was a co-petitioner in the NALSA case that declared the transgender people to be the “third gender”. In 2008, she became the first trans person to represent Asia Pacific in the UN. Laxmi has served as a member on the boards of several NGOs that conduct LGBT activist work. In 2007, she started her own organization, Astitva, that works to promote the welfare of sexual minorities. In 2011, Laxmi starred in an award-winning Bollywood movie about transgenders, Queens! Destiny of Dance. In 2016, Laxmi came out with her biography, Red Lipstick.

Laxmi Narayan Tripathi

Trans Rights Activist

DGP (Retd)

Prakash Singh

A retired IPS officer and former Director Genral of Police, he has served as the Chief of Border Security Forces (BSF) and DGP, Uttar Pradesh and Assam. A recipient of the Padma Shri award, he is credited with landmark police reforms in the country.

Prakash Singh

DGP (Retd)

Founder, Gurgaon ki Awaz

Arti Jaiman

Station Director of Gurgaon Ki Awaaz Samudayik Radio, Arti Jaiman, conceived India’s first civil society-led community radio station to cater to the information gaps of people on the margins of urban life, via community reporters, empowering women to speak of things they had never spoken before publicly.

Arti Jaiman

Founder, Gurgaon ki Awaz

DCW Chief

Swati Maliwal

Swati Maliwal is an Indian activist and politician. In 2015, she became the Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women,the youngest to hold the post. In 2018, she went on a 10-day indefinite hunger strike demanding stringent anti-rape laws in India. She only ended her strike after President Ram Nath Kovind promulgated an ordinance.

Swati Maliwal

DCW Chief

Green Ambassador

Elangbam Valentina Devi

Nine-year-old Elangbam Valentina Devi was seen sobbing for two gulmohar trees she had planted and tended to for four years in a viral video on social media, as they were being cut down to widen a road. She is now Manipur’s Green Ambassador.

Elangbam Valentina Devi

Green Ambassador

Activist

Sinu Joseph

An engineer by education and an action-researcher by calling, Sinu Joseph has tread the length and breadth of village India, meeting 17,000 girls and women, to understand the ethos around menstruation, first hand. The managing trustee of Mythri Speaks of Bangaluru, her film on menstrual hygiene has been dubbed in eight languages.

Sinu Joseph

Activist

Doctor & Activist

Dr Priyanjali Datta

Dr Priyanjali Datta goes door to door to nip breast cancer in the bud. With her teammates, the founder of Aaroogya barges into homes in urban slums and villages, calls women out, wins them over, finally examines them clinically and shows them how to check oneself for breast cancer. It’s a brand new type of proactive healthcare movement that has helped 5,00,000 women across NCR, Haryana, West Bengal and the North East.

Dr Priyanjali Datta

Doctor & Activist

Artist

Shehi Shafi

Dubai-based self-made and self-taught artist Shehi Shafi's passionate engagement with social and political issues gives her art an unusual edge: contemporary, transnational, activist art that uses creative expression to mobilise social change. Her protest repertoire against menstruation customs in Kochi, Kerala, #ArppoArthavam (Hurray Menstruation!) has added its heft to making menstruation Outlook's Issue Of The Year in 2018.

Shehi Shafi

Artist

Shooter

Anjum Moudgil

As the countdown begins on the 2020 Olympics, all eyes are on Chandigarh shooter Anjum Moudgil, who scripted history by becoming the first Indian female shooter to win a medal in 10m air rifle at the World Championships. A Masters in sports psychology, a sub Inspector with Punjab Police, she is also an abstract artist.

Anjum Moudgil

Shooter

Actor

Kirti Kulhari

Some actors have been born to break the age-old, textbook norms in the industry and with an incredible filmography, Kirti Kulhari is one of the leading names in the category. Starting her career with Khichdi: The Movie and an off-beat but much-appraised film like Shaitaan, Kirti just took her prowess higher with every role she played. In the film Pink, the actor stood out with her powerful performance alongside stalwarts like the legendary Amitabh Bachchan. From then on, she has gained much appreciation from the critics as well as the audience as she starred in films like Indu Sarkar and Blackmail. In 2019, the actor has been at the top of her game with superhit films like URI: The Surgical Strike and Mission Mangal. And it is not just the films that Kirti is excelling in, she has taken over the digital space as well with successful shows like Four More Shots Please! And Bard Of Blood. Kirti has always been an actor who does not shy away from talking about the issues plaguing both the society and the film industry. She is known to say her piece and express her views with style, substance, and panache. On the work front, Kirti has several exciting projects lined up like the second season of her web series Four More Shots Please! and films like the Hindi remake of Ribhu Dasgupta’s The Girl On The Train where she is playing a police officer and a movie called Bataasha where she will essay the role of a musician.

Kirti Kulhari

Actor

Actor, TV Host

Kubbra Sait

She bid farewell to her corporate career in Dubai and leaped into the entertainment industry in Mumbai. Starting off as an anchor, she enthralled audiences in over 30 countries. From hosting awards, she progressed to being featured in advertisements for big brands, slowly emerging as a household face. Soon enough, the stunner made it to films such as Ready, Jodi Breakers, Sultan and Gully Boy. Then she went on to do the unexpected as she hit the digital space with Netflix's popular series, Sacred Games and there has been no looking back for the all-round entertainer ever since.

Kubbra Sait

Actor, TV Host

Actor

Shefali Shah

Shefali Shah is a National Award winning actress with a career spanning over two decades across various genres and formats. After working in landmark TV serials like Tara, Banegi Apni Baat, Kabhie Kabhie and Naya Nukkad. She has most recently starred in Delhi Crime, a Netflix original based on the true story of Nirbhaya. Her stellar performance as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi has been widely appreciated. She has received multiple awards including the Best Actress in a leading role at MIPCOM, Jagran Award for OTT Best Actress Female and iReel Award for Best Actress Drama.
Shefali has given breakthrough performances in several films including Satya, Monsoon Wedding, Gandhi, My Father, Waqt: A Race Against Time and Dil Dhadakne Do. She played the lead in director Neeraj Ghaywan’s short film Juice, which won multiple awards, including the Filmfare Best Actress Award which brought her wide critical acclaim for her restrained and powerful performance. In 2010, she starred in a play opposite Kiran Karmarkar in Chandrakant Kulkarni’s- Bas Itna Sa Khwab. She has also starred opposite Neeraj Kabi in Once Again, an Indo-German feature directed by Kanwal Sethi. She has lent her voice for the character of Raksha in the Hindi version of Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book (2016).
Throughout her career, she has won numerous awards including Filmfare Critics Awards, Stardust Awards, and the Tokyo International Film Festival Award (Best Actress). She won the National Award for Best Supporting Actress at the 55th National Film Awards for her work in The Last Lear. Apart from acting, Shefali has also pursued her passion in painting by undertaking a 6 months training course at Metafora Art School, Barcelona. In 2017, she had her first-ever solo painting exhibition in Pune.

Shefali Shah

Actor

Videos

Agenda

October 19, 2019
Taj Palace, New Delhi
Time Session Speaker
18.30 – 18.35Welcome AddressIndranil Roy, Chief Executive Officer, The Outlook Group
18.35 – 18.40Speakout SpotlightA Vision For Women: Resilience, self-belief and overcoming the odds
Dr Mariazeena Johnson, Chancellor, Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology
18.40 – 18.50Speakout Inspiration What Men Think Women Want And What They Actually Want: Lessons learned from living a life less ordinary
Khushbu Sundar, Actor, Producer, Television Presenter, Politician
18.50 – 19.15Speakout Hard Talk

Reclaiming The Stain For Freedom From Stigma

Menstrual Health Of India: myths, science and subversion
Sinu Joseph, Menstrual Hygiene Educator, Counsellor & Managing Trustee, Mythri Speaks, Bengaluru

Period of Change: who owns your menstrual experience?
Advaita Kala, Author, Screenwriter And Columnist

Period Shaming: talaq, tuhr and the Muslim woman
Zakia Soman, Women’s Rights Activist, Co-founder of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan

Breaking Taboos: on menstruation and disability
Deepa Malik, Paralympic Athlete

Period Poverty: what is it and what can we do?
Sushmita Dev, Politician and All India Mahila Congress President
19.15 – 19.20Speakout Spotlight The Modern Middle Class: women as agents of change
Frederic Widell, Vice President, Head of South Asia & Managing Director, Oriflame India
19.20 - 19.35Speakout Serenade Maatibaani: Where The World Meets India
By Nirali Kartik and Kartik Shah
19.35 - 19:40 Speakout Spotlight Why Should Boys Have All The Fun
Vijay Sethi, CIO, Head HR and CSR, Hero MotoCorp Ltd.
19.40 – 20.10 Speakout Storyboard  

Reclaiming The Narrative For A Safer World

Dealing With Women's Safety Issues As A Diplomat
Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, IFS, was first Indian woman Ambassador to Qatar and Japan

The Journey From Pariah To Demigod
Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Trans Rights Activist, Bharatanatyam dancer and the first transgender person to represent the Asia Pacific region in the UN 

The Gap Between The Law And The Reality: the story of the police
Prakash Singh, Retired Indian Police Service officer and former Director General of Police (DGP)

Prostitution Rackets In Spas, The New Normal In Delhi 
Swati Maliwal, Activist politician, Chairperson of Delhi Commission for Women

Moderator
Arti Jaiman, Founder and station director of Gurgaon ki Awaaz community radio station that gives voice to marginalised migrant workers

20.10 - 20.30 Speakout Parlour

Reinventing The Game: What Women Want

Kubbra Sait, Actor
Kirti Kulhari, Actor
Shefali Shah, Actor
Lachmi Deb Roy, Special Correspondent, The Outlook Group (Moderator)

20.30 - 20.35 Editor's Take Ruben Banerjee, Editor-in-Chief, The Outlook Group
20.30 - 21.00 Speakout Awards The Power Of Ten
21.05 - 21.25 Guest Of Honour Smriti Zubin Irani, Union Minister of Women and Child Development and Textiles
21.30 Vote of Thanks Shrutika Dewan, Vice President, Brand and Marketing, The Outlook Group

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