Back in 2017, Priyanka Chopra was invited to speak at an event by Penguin Random House. She was one of the speakers at their annual lecture series titled ‘Breaking The Glass Ceiling’ and her speech was indeed laud-worthy. But that’s beside the point. She, an actor, was the first woman to speak on the platform and not a female author, which would have been a better, more significant fit.
Something like this has happened again. The granddaughter of Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan and the daughter of Shweta Bachchan-Nanda, Navya Naveli Nanda recently spoke at the US Consulate on working towards building gender-equal boardrooms in India.
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The primary problem with this was pointed out by a female entrepreneur named Shruti Jahagirdar who is also a national-level volleyball player. She claimed that Navya has never worked in an organization or stepped inside a gender-inequal boardroom.
Navya Nanda recently spoke at the U.S Consulate-Working towards gender equal ‘boardrooms’ in India
She’s 25. Never worked in an org!
And those of us who have worked in the top 20 companies in the Global Fortune 500 especially male dominated industries (india & abroad) look on🤷🏻♀️
— Shruti Jahagirdar (@Shruti_my_voice) November 29, 2022
Shruti clarified that this is not about star-kid privilege, class or Navya’s economic standing in society. Instead, it is about how the wrong person was chosen to speak about a very important subject.
Just to be perfectly clear.This is not about her privilege. I believe people of all ages, privileges and classes should speak about gender equality.I have a problem with an organisation matching the wrong person for the wrong talk (topic) and diluting a very important discussion.
— Shruti Jahagirdar (@Shruti_my_voice) November 29, 2022
She spoke under a campaign called #entreprenaari.Now tell me why would u change a perfectly gender neutral word to bring the women into the fray?Do we say fire-fightress?Defeats the purpose & adds much bullshit bingo onto gender equality table which is rife with words sans action
— Shruti Jahagirdar (@Shruti_my_voice) November 29, 2022
I just wish she spoke on another topic regarding gender equality and not women in boardrooms. She just doesn’t have the experience to comment on that. No young person at 25 will have it to be honest.
— Shruti Jahagirdar (@Shruti_my_voice) November 29, 2022
Several people pointed out that a woman who has enough experience working in a professional setting that is widely dominated by men would have been a right fit instead of Navya Nanda. So many professionals come to mind – female cricketers, police officers, private investigators, CEOs, etc.
I have been thinking about the same, what is her qualification to talk about women and work! And I doubt given the privilege that she comes from, she undertakes too much unpaid work too at home like most women do.
— Aparajita Bharti (@BhartiAparajita) November 29, 2022
Most of the campaigns have failed due to lack of experience of the speaker or organiser. Whole idea of any such campaigns is to bring out the real issue and try to resolve it. By making poster boy / girl to speak, such campaigns may get some milage online but no real change
— Praveenkumar (@Adv_Praveen_H) November 29, 2022
Correct! it’s like Taliban conference on women rights where every participant was male. May be the points they raised were valid but, do we accept the setup! Same here, Navya Nanda talking about entrepreneurship is a mismatch, missing nuance.
— Anjan (@YehLoKalloBaat) November 29, 2022
She has no qualification, reason or experience to be in that room and present anything. The fact that she was invited to do this is pathetic. The fact that people showed up to listen is even worse.
— Banraakas Sachivji (@jean6439) November 29, 2022
As one person online rightly pointed out, celebrities and their families should not be made role models for social causes unless they are experienced and there is enough evidence supporting their work. For example, Tamil star Vijay Sethupathi would be a fitting candidate to speak on employment issues in the country as he has been silently helping thousands of people secure jobs. Or Prabhas’ environmental activism will be taken seriously because he has adopted forests and has made generous contributions towards the making of eco-parks.
Do you think Navya Naveli Nanda was a fitting speaker on this occasion?