Pandemic Has Impacted Working Indian Women: Navya Naveli Nanda On Gender Equality

Navya Naveli Nanda on gender equality: Navya Naveli Nanda, granddaughter of Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan, has shared her two cents on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women across the globe.

Nanda took to her Instagram on Tuesday (April 27) and wrote that this pandemic has "disproportionately" affecting women, especially working women. She further claimed that especially for Indian women, "gender equality" becomes a "distant dream" during the pandemic.

In her IG Stories, she attached a report by an international publication detailing the effects of the deadly pandemic.

Nanda is a vocal feminist and mental health advocate. She has started an online healthcare platform called Aara Health. She is very passionate about women's issues and shared the views on  Instagram: 'Effects Of The Pandemic: The Gender Gap Grew By 36 Years In Just 12 Months.'

The report published by Forbes says that in the past 12 months of the pandemic, the gender gap increased by 36 years. "On its current trajectory, it will now take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide. This is a steep increase from the previous Global Gender Gap Report, which predicted 99.5 years," the report stated.

Nanda was recently in the news after she praised a Jharkand girl, Seema Kumari for securing a full scholarship at Harvard University. She shared the story on her Instagram and called her achievement "incredible".

The 23-year-old, who recently graduated from New York’s Fordham University, co-founded Aara Health with three young women – Ahilya Mehta, Mallika Sahney and Pragya Saboo. She is also the founder of Project Naveli. While Aara is a women's health platform aiming to “empower, educate and diagnose” women and provide services around feminine health in India, Project Naveli provides "access to resources and opportunities that will allow for economic and social empowerment.”

"I hope to bridge the gender gap in India," Nanda, who has been helping mobilise and amplify resources for COVID-19 relief, said.

Nanda had also spoken about working as a woman in a male-dominated industry, during an Instagram live. “When you are meeting new people for work and talking to them, there is always that…not worry of what they are going to think of you but more internal, where I feel like, ‘Oh, we need to prove ourselves.’ Especially because in the space that we are in, it is largely dominated by men,” she had said.

“So whenever we are put in the spotlight, talking to a vendor or a doctor… All of us have been in situations where we are talking to somebody, most likely a man, who is mansplaining and talking to us in a very condescending manner,” she added.

Nanda is a digital technology graduate from New York and daughter of Shweta Bachchan Nanda and businessman Nikhil Nanda. She modelled for her mother’s designer label in collaboration with designer Monisha Jaising in the year 2018.

Feature Image Credit: news18.com