Bhairavi Jani On Highway To Swades, Role Of Women In Indian Economy And More

In the footstep of 2014, as the country buried itself for its 16th Lok Sabha elections, entrepreneur Bhairavi Jani with her three close friends in tow, set off to travel the vast landscape of India. Together, they covered a distance of 18,181 kilometres over 51 days. Their expedition took them to Kashmir and Kanyakumari, to Kohima and to Kutch, where they interviewed hundreds of diverse groups of people. She then compiled her endearing insights in the book Highway to Swades.

Jani is a fourth-generation entrepreneur and executive director of the SCA Group of Companies, undertaking activities in the supply chain and logistics sector. Throughout the book, Jani weaves threads of stories that bind India, the world's largest democracy and rediscovers the nation's inherent civilisational powers. The framework helped her result in discovering twelve superpowers.

For example, Jani talks about the power of enterprise by exploring the values of India's budding entrepreneurs. When it comes to the power of nature, she beautifully narrates stories of the Khasis of Meghalaya, Kumaon hills and the Changpa community who live in the cold desert in Ladakh. There is tradition, history, and creativity and technology threaded wonderfully throughout the book.

In an interview with SheThePeople, Jani explains the role of women in the Indian economy, how they should continue breaking stereotypes and why travel is the key to shaping one's leadership skills.

In recent years, India has witnessed fast-paced growth in gig entrepreneurship. You too mentioned how it has opened up avenues for business opportunities. How do you think women can capitalise on the same and harness their entrepreneurial journeys?

Earlier women had to choose a more organic, linear model for getting involved in economic activities. For example, either through a job or starting an enterprise. Both of these come with varying degrees of challenges and demands on time. Therefore, women would either leave jobs when family commitments demanded or intentionally keep their enterprises small, so they can easily manage work and home. What the gig entrepreneurship opportunities do is that they take away the constraints on time by adding flexibility. So, a woman need not quit a job, she can choose to take a break from an assignment for a few days, or weeks. Or she doesn't need to keep her business small at all times, she can choose to take more or less work based on her time commitments. Therefore, women who want to capitalise on the gig-enterprise option need to ask three simple questions to themselves:

a) What skills do I have

b) How much is the market willing to pay for it

c) How much time do I want to commit to my work

One of the chapters in your book mentions, something that I have heard very often, women can be trusted with creatives but not with business propositions or logistics. What is your advice on how to break such stereotypes?

The best way to break stereotypes is to ignore them completely. We are not responsible for the manner in which people think, but we can influence it only through our actions. Therefore, I have never spent time and energy denying or fighting stereotypes or biases.

I have gone about doing what I do to the best of my abilities and with the highest of standards once you deliver excellence with consistency – biases and typecasting wither away.

You are a successful businesswoman, an avid traveller, a writer, and a philanthropist. While it may be absurd and unfair of me to ask you to choose one of the superpowers, I would love to know what is that one superpower that helps you achieve all these major feats. 

My superpower is my power of persistence and that kind of merges with my power of enterprise. I am an entrepreneur, therefore, a problem solver. But because I am an entrepreneur, I also bring risk-taking, innovation, creativity, persistence, tenacity and hard work to anything I do – which allows me to learn and unlearn and get involved with so much more than just my business.

A recent report said that women contribute 18% to India's GDP; but with better opportunities for women, the rate can improve. While many women continue to break the glass ceiling in many aspects, something is still holding us back. What are your thoughts on this? 

The issue is how we are looking at women's role in societal advancement. We have boxed their education, health, economic independence, labour participation, and contribution to the care economy – all in different pockets. This is a flawed approach. We need to bring systems thinking to women's role in societal advancement – education, wellness, enterprise, economic independence, financial and digital access et al. – all need to be addressed together and their interlinkages understood – to ensure that the number of women who work increases. More importantly, the number of women who work – is counted in the nation's accounting. Then there are the infrastructure and design aspects of roads, street lights, toilets, and public transport. These need to be looked into to facilitate the systemic changes of more educated women, and more working women.

Highway to Swades is your careful observant perception of our country. Your writing defines how passionately you look at India and hope to nurture its growth. With the country's ever-changing landscape and technological advent, what is your outlook on India@75?

I think 75 years are over. We now have to think ahead to the next 5-10-25 years and what we want to achieve, say, by 2047 or 2050. There are some aspects that will shape this reality – our young demographic, the accelerated pace of technological advancements like the 4th IR tech, the difficult rise of climate risk and imminent climate crisis, food security and wellness, education and skill for a completely new economic landscape driven by creative and knowledge economy forces, and paradigm shifts on inclusion and assimilation, the redefinition of what is "Global" and what is "Local" – all of these are already reshaping our world, the choice we have to make is that what steps we are willing to take to shape this new world order with our superpowers as a people and as a Republic.

Actor Pankaj Tripathi once said travelling is paramount for youth. They must extensively travel India and especially through its public transport and stay with the locale. Tell me your thoughts on it, how important is travel in one's life?

Travel is the magic potion that transports you to experiences you can never have sitting at home. And so, Pankaj Tripathi is right in suggesting that when young people travel, they open themselves to eclectic experiences, even some that challenge their comfort zone. I began travelling when I was very young and it has shaped my thought process and attitude to life. It has made me more open to the unknown, it has given me the confidence to explore the world, it has given me the ability to be non-judgemental and interact with people from all walks of life. All these and more have shaped my own leadership style over the years.