All the women featured in this year’s Express Healthcare Women’s Day Special are leading lights of the healthcare sector in India and have chipped away at traditional notions of what it is to be a woman leader. Ameera Shah of Metropolis Healthcare did not have it easy even though she was taking her father’s dream forward and was familiar with lab processes since she was a child. She worked her way up the ladder and earned the respect of the industry.
Ardra Kurien, Administrator of KIMS Pinnacle Comprehensive Cancer Center, feels that women entrepreneurs are changing the face of business houses with their vibrant ideas and sensitivity while Betoshini Chakraborty, MD, Bardhaman Healthcare and FAITH Healthcare, believes that the ability of women leaders to not just lead from the front but also bring people along with them on that journey makes them better team builders and sometimes better at resolving conflict in business.
In 1988, when Dr Indira Hinduja, Honorary Gynaecologist, PD Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre, pioneered the gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT) technique and gave India its first GIFT baby, she was offering women not just cutting edge technology and technique but extending the gift of motherhood. She was in a sense, beating both time and Mother Nature.
Other luminaries like Jagruti Bhatia, Senior Advisor, Healthcare, KPMG India have used their position to lobby for what they believe in. In her case, Bhatia lent her voice to support and promote green practices in healthcare. As a serial entrepreneur, Meena Ganesh, Co-founder & CEO of Portea Medical, honed her skills in other areas before she and her husband turned to healthcare, which she feels plays right to the strength of women.
Part of another power-entrepreneur couple, Sunita Maheshwari is Chief Dreamer of RXDX and Teleradiology Solutions as well as a practising paediatric cardiologist. She believes that being an entrepreneur is actually very liberating for a woman as she can choose her work hours and hence has a better chance of achieving a work-life balance. That should be encouragement for more women in the healthcare sector to make their vision a reality.
MD of Wockhardt Hospitals, Zahabiya Khorakiwala in fact quotes studies and research that prove that women on an average have a higher EQ than men and as one moves higher up in an organisation in terms of role and responsibility, the softer skills become a much greater requirement for performance.
But in spite of having so many women leaders and entrepreneurs in the healthcare sector, the average woman in India still does not have access to adequate healthcare. India is a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but as of now it looks as if we will miss meeting both the fourth MDG (reducing child mortality) and the fifth (improving maternal health). It’s not rocket science to see that taking care of the mother’s health will automatically result in a healthier infant. So even though there has been a slight improvement in maternal mortality ratios (MMR), more work on MMR will in turn improve the infant mortality rate (IMR) as well.
If art reflects reality, maybe our society has reached a tipping point. Main Kuch Bhi Kar Sakti Hoon (I can do anything), a tele-series to be launched on March 8, International Women’s Day, is being positioned as a “catalyst for change” say mother-daughter duo Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali Khan, who are championing this cause. Through the series, the producers hope to provide a platform for strong women characters mirroring the title’s claim. It is indeed worth noting that the female lead is a doctor, proof that society respects a woman as a doctor and also the notion that she can be a change-agent. This is amply borne out by the women we’ve featured in this issue; both practising doctors as well as those in healthcare delivery. We hope to feature many more such role models in future issues.
Viveka Roychowdhury
Editor
