Bypassing the glass ceiling

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Wednesday, March 05, 2008 at 2343 hrs many roles that a working woman has to play. From being a daughter and wife to a homemaker, she plays all roles and takes care of her work. Being an entrepreneur has been an interesting journey. If I look back, at times it’s exhausting, but all in all, it’s very fulfilling.”

And it’s been no different for women in the rest of South Asia. Because these women are just making cracks in the glass ceiling more visible than ever. The point was driven home recently at an event of SCWEC organised by the FICCI Ladies Organisation.

Take, for example, Ramya Weerakoon of Sri Lanka. When the 23-year-old war widow was forced to turn her hobby of batik painting into a profession in 1972, she hardly realised that she would be changing things for many other women in her country. Weerakoon started a small unit from her home in 1976. Today, she owns factories under the names of Ramya Apparels, Tendwear and Ramya Horticulture that provide employment to about 2,000 women. She recollects, “My first aim was to get a house of my own and then support my two daughters.”

And it was no smooth sailing for her, but she made sure that she negotiated the rough currents successfully. She started exporting batik and was soon running an independent unit. Today Weerakoon is an independent and outgoing woman she never thought she could be. As the vice-president of SCWEC, she is trying to smoothen the edges that were rough for her. “One of the biggest problems I faced was in getting a loan from a bank to start my business. It still remains an issue in our country and we are trying to solve it from our end as much as we can.”