Sheroes: A Dawn for Women
A couple of years before the famous U.S show TedX called on the stage Tejasvini. As Tejasvini started to narrate her journey of success, tears rolled down on every audience’s cheek.
Once Shakti, an Indian entrepreneur was travelling from the train when TT suddenly shouted,” Hey girl, what are you doing there? Where is your ticket? A thin and scared girl came out of the crowd. It seemed that she had cried profusely. She was in tattered clothes and had messy hair. Shakti paid for her ticket. The girl started talking to Shakti.
She told her that she belongs to a village in Bihar. She had studied in Patna. And was a silver medalist, a gold-medalist and a topper throughout her academics. Not only this she was excellent at creativity. The girl was very fond of knitting, cooking, painting, writing, art and craft. After her marriage, she became a victim of physical and verbal abuse. Her husband and family mistreated and molested her. So, she was left with no option but to run from her in-laws’ house. Shakti introduced that girl to an application cum company named SHEROES and that changed her whole life.
But, what does Sheroes company do?
It is an online platform for women where one can seek advice on a particular profession and browse through career opportunities.
The talent of the timid, scared girl from Bihar broke when she got associated with Sheroes company. The girl started uploading the pictures of her creative things on Sheroes platform and received huge recognition. She used the Sheroes helpline for all legal advice because it is connected to many top legal advisors who help women at a minimal cost.
Not only this, but Sheroes also helped her in getting employment. After the girl landed a job she started to invest her salary to pursue and expanded her businesses. Her business flourished with astounding storms over the country. In due course of time, the girl was nurtured like a Banyan tree having strong roots and profound shade.
The girl in the above story was none other than Tejasvini.
Sheroes changed the roadmap of her destiny. This is not only the story of Tejasvini but there are hundreds and thousands of Tejasvinis whose lives are transformed and improved by Sheroes company.
Women can be a maker, a cook, a writer, a traveller, a gardener, an entrepreneur, a job-seeking woman. They make and they create.
Sheroes is a platform for women and their career choices, a voice loaded with dreams, aspirations, and hopes. Sheroes let you believe that every woman is a HERO.
Sairee Chahal: Founder & CEO of Sheroes
“Be the change that you wish to see in the world.”
Sairee Chahal is a trailblazer who brought out the change to empower women by strengthening them up on the platform of Sheroes.
It was a small step of Sairee which is now transforming the picture of women’s community. An entrepreneur and mentor by profession, Sairee took the challenge to bring women to the forefront and provide resources to create opportunities for them. She is determined to nurture a community for working women and that is why she founded Sheroes in the first place.
Sairee Chahal Story
She was born in Yamuna Nagar, Haryana but was brought up in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh. Sairee’s father was a consultant in a Steel Company because of which they moved to several other cities. Her mother was a homemaker and her parents always encouraged her and her younger sister to pursue the career they want. This developed a strong sense of self-belief right from childhood in both the sisters.
After completing her schooling she went on to pursue M.A from JNU, Delhi followed by a PGDM from IMT, Ghaziabad, and M.Phil. in International Business from JNU.
During her college, Sairee worked for a business magazine and assisted CIS-Chambers of Commerce. She even has translated a book on the life of a poet from Hindi to Russian and assisted the Discovery Channel in producing a documentary called Holy Men of India.
The Early Expeditions
The expedition of Sairee Chahal embarked when she visited OTGIF at the age of 21. She interacted with a Mariner who had a long-standing career of 30 years in sailing. Given his job, he had to remain away from home for long periods. The mariner was distressed by his holding at her workplace for a prolonged period, so he wanted to do something about it to get updated on daily developments.
He had this idea but he needed somebody to execute it. Sairee knew how to do start-ups, build teams, build products, knew about sales and how to put all the things together.
There Sairee got the idea to start her first venture and opened News link Services, a Newspaper in 1999. It was the first localized newspaper for mariners.
In 2006, Sairee co-founded a consulting firm named Saita Consulting which used to work with SMBs. She has worked with Hedrick and Struggles. Not only this she has also worked with Central Asian countries to set up the embassies and confederation of Indian industry, Russia Desk.
The source of inspiration to kick start Sheroes came up in her mind from her early venture Flexi Moms. Sairee had always been an independent woman but after she was blessed with a daughter, she thought of those women who are unable to resume their career because of their duties and responsibilities corresponding to child-birth. Their Flexi Moms began providing the opportunity to those women who are on their career break.
Sheroes: The Women – Only Social Network
Sairee founded Sheroes with just five people under one roof on 14 January 2014. The company and the employees multi-folded within a couple of years and today, there are 3 lakh women working in different categories of Sheroes. It is the result of Sairee’s observation of gender disparity and a limited quantity of working women during her career in the corporate world. Later, Flexi Moms was also submerged with Sheroes.
Sheroes is a popular term used by poet Maya Angelo who used to be a poet of the 1960s. She used to imply this term for women heroes for the women who want to do something in their lives. Therefore, it was a perfect term to use for the company.
Technology is the sky and Sairee has made her nest on to it. The medium of connecting woman to one another is executed through the application Sheroes which is available in the play store and the website Sheroes.com.
It is an online career rostrum of women, by women and for women.
Sheroes focuses on the job portal having a single-minded aim to provide opportunities to women present at every nook and corner of the country It also focuses to bring the women community to the forefront. Sheroes is the biggest professional career ecosystem for women be it work from home women, trainees, entrepreneurs, professionals.
Sairee began Sheroes with the capital amount of Rs 50 lakh along with some loan amount. It is open for all age groups, right from a 13-year-old girl to a 90-year-old woman.
The philosophy of Sheroes is to bring women together on a world map balancing work and professional life at any stage of work. It is a network meant to help women to another woman with the target to make them self-reliant.
Sairee and Sheroes aim to follow the choice of career they prefer and strike a balance between their personal and professional lives. When women join Sheroes, she becomes part of the community which not only fulfils their aspirations but also finds very tangible benefits. The benefits of joining Sheroes are access to opportunities, the opportunity to do work from home job, business options, and advice on any issue, legal support, health support, etc.
The biggest benefit of Sheroes is that you get a circle of support. The woman can get advice, can get a conversation, can get information, can speak to experts, can get career advice, can speak to peers, can speak to another woman like you and it’s all securely and privately.
Sheroes works mainly through its two mediums, one is through its website and another is through the Sheroes app. Any woman can join the Sheroes community by creating a profile wherein she finds abundant communities present on this planet.
The woman explores it and posts her message or query according to her need like if the woman seeking a job full-time or work from home, want legal advice, want healthcare advice, want to post her new recipe of ice cream or want to post her new article, want to begin with entrepreneurship, etc. It has a place for everything. The people at Sheroes connect with the concerned woman and help her in the best possible manner.
Sairee’s dream project Sheroes aims to put a million women in the workforce in the start-up in the coming years. It is a platform that helps women with mentorship, career opportunities, skills development, jobs and work from home options. With her start-up, she aims to put a million women in the workforce in the coming years.
Why Did Sairee Start Sheroes?
The miserable condition of the women in the workforce caused her to create Sheroes. Sairee believes that every woman is a hero which makes her shero. Despite rising female literacy and education enrollment rates, India ranks low in women’s participation in the workforce.
According to the Labor Organization, India’s female labour force participation rate is just 27% i.e. the 16th lowest in the world. India ranks 127th in General Inequality Index and 10th on the Global Gender Gap Index. The 68th round of the National Sample Survey Organization showed that in 2011-2012, 24.8% of every Indian woman worked in rural areas. The correspondent number when it came to men was 54.3 %. Women’s participation is drastically less in urban areas is 54.6% of employees were men and 14.7% were working women.
Sairee notes that there are huge barriers that prevent women from engaging in the labour market. Sairee says every woman whose job has two jobs. And it’s very easy to take up two jobs if men support women on equal parameters. Unless men do not take charge to step up and become equal partners, it is going to be difficult for women.
There are many other barriers for women like barriers to public spaces, safety, commuting, and the general challenge of optimality, sociological barrier, and financial barrier, psychological barrier, etc. There are still many families in which they feel that their daughter or daughter-in-law should not work, their daughter should not get an education or step out or the mother should stay always at home to take care of her children and elders. Women don’t find any supporting infrastructure when it comes to their careers.
At such juncture, Sheroes appear and take the role of support and care where women can voice their inner-self, take advice and get into the job in their respective area through the ecosystem of Sheroes.
Sheroes connects around 12,000 companies, 8,000 community members, 1 lakh job connections and more than 30,000 career opportunities.
There are more than 30 lakh women in Sheroes across India and now from abroad also women are coming to join. The issues are universal.
The Theme of Sheroes: Women Empowerment
The act of helping, caring and sharing is the basic and main theme of Sheroes. It not only gives career opportunities to women but also creates and caters for a support system to be it of any kind. Be it health care, education, legal, emotional, relationship, love, etc.
Women are creators. Every woman has some special talent. When they make anything, they can upload it on Sheroes site, and the women get recognition free of cost. They also provide a helpline where they can take advice. Sheroes is associated with companies to make an ecosystem. Whoever wants to contribute to the development of women, can be connected with Sheroes.
Sairee believes that they are connected with public policy partners, health partners, legal partners, NGO partners. If we weave these together and channelize the energy towards women that can create wonders.
The woman gives after healing from their setbacks and that woman empowers another woman and weaves the chain of empowerment. Feel, heal, give, join hands with each other and empower and strengthen womanhood.
Sairee Chahal: A Board Member of Paytm
Sairee Chahal has been appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of Paytm Payments Banks in April 2019. Her appointment would benefit it given her knowledge about start-ups and the ecosystem.
Sairee Chahal responds to being joyful as a part of a mission whose motto is to bring millions of under-served and unbanked Indians into the economic mainstream.
About Sairee Chahal
Sairee is simple, sharp and has the zest to achieve the goal. She encourages the women community and believes that they are capable of creating wonders.
Sairee quotes the example of Robin Chase of Zip car. The idea of sharing a car system started with the idea of Robin Chase. Women can change the world if they are guided and supported and that is the aim of Sairee.
She is a nature lover and is fond of yoga, gardening, etc. Sairee applies minimal make-up and always wears sports shoes.
Awards & Recognitions
Sairee Chahal is the recipient of many awards like – Most Powerful Women in Indian Business 2012, Featured on Young Turks, Ted-X Speaker. She has also been recognized by Business Today and was a finalist for the Cartier Women’s Award Initiative 2012.
Conclusion
Sairee is the perfect epitome for imbibing these beautiful lines. She has shared, cared, loved and helped women across the country and the world and made Sheroes a giant model for the Women Community. She describes the definition of the community through a game.
Sairee made her women employees play a game wherein the women have to give and take something from the handbag of another woman. When the women gave and took from each other at the end of the game.
Sairee explained that the actual meaning of community i.e. to help, to share, to give, to take and to connect. This is what community means!
Sheroes is a large size ‘thali system’ which provides a huge, enormous and myriad variety of opportunities to every woman across the world.
As in thali, we get multiple and multitudinous dishes to relish. In Sheroes, the women get ample, myriad and eccentric communities to deal with to get the opportunity.
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