Equality Seems To Be A Possibility Compared To 20 Years Back: Nishtha Satyam

Nishtha Satyam shares her story about how a regular girl who went to college, studied something her parents wanted to, had heartbreak, was pushed for marriage and then tried and tested various things in life till she joined UN Women. She spoke to SheThePeople about the progress made by society towards women in India and South-Asian countries and what the near future looks.

Nishtha Satyam was appointed as the Head of Office for Timor-Leste in UN Women, the United Nations entity dedicated to working towards Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in September 2021. She was the former Deputy Country Representative for UN Women in India. She served as the Officer in Charge starting January 2018 as the youngest woman to head a country office for UN Women amongst 193 countries.

Nishtha Satyam and her journey to UN Women

Satyam shares that she was mesmerised by the UN. The work UN had done and its influence on people across the globe, but being a part of it wasn't planned. She always wanted to be a journalist, and appearing on television as an anchor was her dream. She was not very interested in economics but ended up with it. She is a trained economist keen on the applied macroeconomic and fiscal policy who worked with well-known firms like KMPG and American Express. In her long-standing career in the United Nations, she has managed the UN Women's Office for a geopolitically diverse group of countries, including India, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. Satyam has also served as the Private Sector Partnerships Specialist with the Office of the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations and UNDP.

Satyam shares that she wasn't ever "taught" feminism and the principles of equality as a child. The exposure to new ideas and more open conversations was almost nonexistent when she was growing up. She said, "As a woman, you grow up with various experiences and learn from that. We understood there was a problem beneath but didn't know what to do about it." She recalls that marriage was looked upon as a women's ultimate goal, and they were prepared for that instead of chasing a career aggressively. 

Is UN Women doing enough?

Satyam answered this question by saying, "We have to remember that we are not challenging an internet phenomenon. We are challenging one of the oldest institutions in the world, and it is not about doing enough or just a scratch on the surface but how long we have come so far." She also points out that these changes are reversible; at any point, things might go back to how they were 50 or 100 years back. She speaks about the recent verdict on abortion in the United States of America, where something that was solved 50 years back came up and now has been reversed back to its older primitive state. Satyam says, "We have to fight the fight every day," she adds, "we are at a unique time where equality seems to be a possibility compared to 20 years back."

How does the UN report on population affect women's lives?

Talking about the recent report by the UN on the increasing population of India, which they assume might surpass China by 2023, Satyam says, "It is important to see that the increase of population is not happening at the misery of women." The population growth will affect women economically, socially and culturally, and women should not be left behind but monitor that they grow with resources too. The population's growth includes women's reproductive choices and their agency in the labour force, them being equal thinkers with equal opportunities in hand.

Satyam mentions that a gender-equitable society is a solution to meet problems like uncontrollable population growth. To achieve equity, we should start with ways to include women in major decision-making, participation in the labour force, politics and economics.

"We often talk about women making more money, but we need to have a greater say in your own money and manage your money."

Satyam says that she believes UN Women has started the conversation about empowering women, which has resulted in political manifestos including a separate part only to address women's issues and platforms emerging to talk about women and their stories solely.

How do policies and schemes help women at large?

When asked if the government policies help women at the grassroots level, who might need it more, Satyam says that there is not a particular country yet that follows a perfect gender-equal system. So, we cannot decide which strata of women deserve empowerment the most. "Everybody needs empowerment, and discrimination cuts through all classes and castes," said Satyam as she said everyone needs change. Satyam is hopeful that slogans like "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" will make a difference, but we might not know how. 

How to empower women economically?

In South Asian countries, women have always managed money but were never recognised for it. She recalls that it is common to have heard that the grandmothers in households have managed the budgeting and often, the men in the house were not even aware of how the household was run. Women earning money is a newer concept, but knowing how to handle money has been done for generations.

Satyam points out, "We as a country have come through a contradictory path where we started from women not earning money but managing it to earning money now but not managing it." She says that somewhere as we progressed, we picked up bad habits from other cultures where we didn't keep women in the loop of understanding money in modern times. She says, "When we were growing up, going to the bank was a regular culture, and now everything is internet banking and easier access at home, but women were made to feel distant from the technology." Women now earn money but give up on managing it and let their male counterparts do the needful. Teaching women how to go with the flow of advancement of technology is important so they have agency over their independent financial decision and, thus, lives.

Nishtha Satyam encourages the youth and the people from various sectors of work to keep the conversation around women and equality alive because she believes that greater change cannot only come from a particular organisation but if the whole community works toward it.

Suggested Reading: SheThePeople Collaborates With UN Women India To Strengthen Gender Equality Awareness