Quite early, a barrage of powerful messages got drilled into her impressionable mind. “You are equal. You must speak your mind. You can do anything.” This is what Swagatika Das’s school teachers taught her. What was sowed into their heads 30 years ago, the IIT-Kharagpur graduate underlines, is being reaped now. If you find a steady stream of women entering the workspace, moving up the ladder, taking up senior roles, and speaking their minds, then it’s not a sudden change, reckons Das. You live with bold messages for years, and you end up internalising them. “That’s what changes lives,” she says.
(This story appears in the 24 March, 2023 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)