Karnataka will bring back a 40-year-old Mysuru woman under treatment at a rehab hospital in Shimla, an official statement said on Monday.

“Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on being alerted about the stranded woman directed Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G. Shankar to make necessary arrangements to bring her back to the state,” a statement from the Chief Minister’s Office said.

As reported by the local media, 40-year-old Saraswathi from Makanahalli village in Mysuru district, went missing about two years ago when she came to Bengaluru to work in a garment factory.

She had reportedly reached Himachal Pradesh’s Kangra and was later admitted to the Himachal Hospital of Mental Health and Rehabilitation in Shimla for treatment in June 2016.

“She could not contact her family facing language issues in Himachal and was unable to recall how she reached there,” the statement added.

The Chief Minister has directed the Mysuru Deputy Commissioner to provide necessary treatment and shelter on her return to the state.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that a woman’s right to pray is equal to that of a man as enshrined in the Constitution and forming a law cannot negate that. The apex court was hearing a batch of petitions challenging the ban on entry of women in Kerala’s Sabarimala temple on grounds of biological factors.

“On what basis you (temple authorities) deny the entry. It is against the Constitutional mandate. Once you open it for the public, anybody can go,” Chief Justice Dipak Misra said.

He said that if the temple has allowed men to enter, then it must allow women to enter too. “There is no concept of a private temple. If there is a temple then it is a public place and everyone is allowed to go there. If men can go there then women can also go,” he said during the hearing.

The CJI also opposed the Kerala government’s assertion that ceremonial rules pertaining to temples and method of worship are set by the temple and are protected under the right to worship, saying that a “temple cannot claim denominational rights.”

“Your right to worship as a woman at par with a man is not dependent on a legislation. It’s there in the Constitution. It’s there in article 25(1). Law facilitates equal right of worship by everyone,” he said.

Justice DY Chandrachud, who was part of the five-judge constitutional bench that was hearing the case, further said, “Every woman is also the creation of God and why should there be discrimination against them in employment or worship.”

The Supreme Court had in October last year formed the constitution bench to hear the case and it will decide four significant questions, primary among which is whether the ban amounts to discrimination against women.

The constitution bench also includes Justices Rohinton Fali Nariman, AM Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra.

The petitioner – the Indian Young Lawyers Association – has challenged the 800-year-old practice of prohibiting the entry of women into the famed Lord Ayyappan Temple.

The PIL has sought direction to the Kerala government, the Travancore Devaswom Board, Chief Thanthri (priest) of Sabarimala Temple and the District Magistrate of Pathanamthitta to ensure entry of female devotees between the age group of 10-50.

Appearing for the petitioner, counsel Ravi Prakash Gupta told the court the restrictions on the entry of women in Sabarimala temple is not the essence of their religious affairs as discrimination on the entry of women in the temple is “neither a ritual nor a ceremony associated with Hindu religion”.

Gupta said: “Mere sight of a woman does not affect anybody’s celibacy, if one has take oath of it, otherwise such oath has no meaning.”

A “feminist” Canada is investing nearly $2 billion Canadian dollars (about Rs 10,000 crores) as seed capital in businesses led by its women entrepreneurs, said a senior woman minister here.

“As Canada is committed to encouraging women to grow businesses, we have allocated nearly $2 billion in the fiscal 2018-19 budget for investing in businesses run by women entrepreneurs,” Canadian Small Business Minister Bardish Chagger told IANS in an interview here.

The Canadian government, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, has also a women’s entrepreneurship strategy in the budget to assist women-led ventures to grow and help their nation prosper.

Though born and raised in Canada, Chagger, 38, is of Indian origin, as her parents are Indians, who migrated from Punjab in the 1970s and settled here.

The first woman leader of the government in the Canadian House of Commons as a Member of Parliament (MP) from Waterloo in Ontario, Chagger also holds the tourism portfolio since 2016.

Echoing Trudeau’s viewpoint that Canada cannot tap its potential full if half of its 36-million population was left behind, Chagger said her government was focused on investing in the people, especially refugees and immigrants who came from the world over for a better life in this country, bordering the US in the North.

“We are a feminist government that practices gender balance to empower all our people and gives them equal opportunities to grow,” said Chagger, a keynote speaker at the three-day Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN), organized by the American computer maker Dell Technologies here since Sunday.

As only 16 percent of Canadian businesses are owned or run by women, the Trudeau government is working on doubling it to 32 percent by 2025.

The Canadian government is focused equally on women to build a stronger economy without discriminating them as immigrants or refugees, said Chagger.

Referring to her Indian origins, Chagger said her Indian grandfather would not have imagined migrating to this country and his grand-daughter getting elected to become a Cabinet minister.

“But Canada stands for providing equal opportunities for everyone regardless of their origin and regions,” she said.

With more diversity under Trudeau’s leadership, lawmakers’ decisions ensure that voices of women, immigrants and other minorities are heard, she said.

“Unless one is indigenous, almost everyone is an immigrant in Canada. We have elected people on the Cabinet who came to Canada as refugees, those served in armed forces, etc. Canada has been a welcoming country and will continue to be for migrants from the world over,” Chagger said.

The Liberal Party’s Cabinet, touted as the “most diverse” globally, has Indian-origin Harjit Sajjan, the first Sikh to become Canada’s Defence Minister, and Carla Qualtrough, a former Paralympic athlete, as Minister of Public Services.

The 30-member Trudeau Cabinet has an equal number of men and women in it.

With 1.3-million (13 lakh) people of Indian origin, Canada is also looking for stronger ties with India, especially in trade and tourism.

“We have established links in February between Communitech, a hub for technology firms in Waterloo region, and the T-hub at Hyderabad in Telangana, to foster technology businesses in both regions. We are looking for more such opportunities in both countries,” Chagger said.

Canadian Parliament in Ottawa recognized Punjabi as the third most-spoken language, after English and French, said Chagger.

Canada is also investing in developing skills of people for the growth of its economy.

“We are working on lowering taxes on the middle class, which is the backbone of our economy. We want to give benefits to those who need them most and are asking the wealthy to forego them,” added Chagger.

Malvika Iyer was a charming 13-year-old girl in 2002 when a grenade accidentally blew up in her hands, ripping her forearm and paralyzing her legs, in Bikaner, Rajasthan, where she lived with her parents. An accident that could have ended her life completely changed her perspective, and even though it took years for her to overcome the trauma, she came out stronger and not only found a way to get her life back on track but also became a harbinger of change for the disabled.

It was a change in the attitude of others, which came along with the trauma, that sensitized her towards the stigma associated with disability and she chose not to take it lying down, but fight against it not only for herself but for many others like her.

Now 29, the Chennai-based activist has overcome her disability by sheer will and was honoured with the prestigious Nari Shakti Puraskar (Women Power Award) by President Ram Nath Kovind in March this year for pushing the envelope in making everyone understand disability and come to terms with the physically challenged.

Through her talks across countries like the United States, Norway and South Africa as a global motivational speaker, Malvika’s saga has been igniting hope for thousands of people with disabilities the world over.

“I grew up at Bikaner in Rajasthan, where my father was working as an engineer in the state Water Works Department. The incident occurred on May 26, 2002 when I was 13 years old and studying in class IX.

“As I was rummaging in the garage at home, I unknowingly held a grenade in hand that blew up, snapping my forearms and severely injuring my legs, which lay dangling,” recalled Malvika in an interview to IANS.

A fire that broke out in the ordnance depot at Bikaner in January 2002 had flung pieces of ammunition in the vicinity, one of which claimed her arms.

Though bed-ridden for nearly 18 months after multiple surgeries on the legs, which suffered nerve paralysis, and the arms that were fitted with prosthetics, a restless Malvika soon pushed herself to face the challenge of her life at such a young age.

With just four months left for class X exams in 2004, she decided to appear as a private candidate in Chennai for the Tamil Nadu Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC), having missed class IX in 2002-03 after being hospitalised.

The gritty survivor, a bilateral amputee, then took her first steps with her parents’ support and wrote the exams with the help of a scribe as she was still getting used to prosthetics. Her determination had the nation in awe as she passed the board exam with distinction and was among the toppers in the southern state.

“Then President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam read about me in a newspaper and had invited me to Rashtrapati Bhavan. He (Kalam) had asked me about my career plans and spoke to me about missile making,” Malvika fondly recalled.

“Facing board exams with no arms and meeting a President like Kalam made me realise that I should never feel bad about anything lost. There was no looking back after this thought,” asserted the disability rights activist.

Since then, Malvika forged ahead with higher education at the prestigious St. Stephen’s College in Delhi in Economics, a Master’s in Social Work from the Delhi School of Social Work and an M.Phil and Ph.D. in Social Work from the Madras School of Social Work in Chennai, even as she learnt to tackle disability and people’s attitudes towards it head-on.

“I was very active throughout my childhood — good at sports, dancing and had a fun teen life. It wasn’t easy to cope with losing my arms and seeing my legs weakened. But I soon felt that people’s attitude to disabilities hurt more than disability itself,” Malvika quipped.

In 2013, she delivered her first public speech in Chennai, opening up on how the incident changed her life forever. Soon she appealed to many nations across the world, demanding better laws and facilities for the disabled.

Through her talks, Malvika has been highlighting the issues of inclusion, attitudinal change towards the disabled, accessible elections, accessible fashion — where clothing is designed keeping disabilities in mind — body positivity, celebrating people with all body types, etc., while allowing people to connect with her through her own story.

“Every day, I receive hundreds of messages from people across countries, saying that I’ve been a reason why they never gave up in life. It is overwhelming that I’m able to make a difference in people’s lives,” noted Malvika, who also turned a model to advocate accessible fashion.

She is a member of the Chennai hub of Global Shapers Community, an initiative of the World Economic Forum to encourage young people below 30 to work for change, and the United Nations Inter-Agency Network on Youth Development, allowing her to carry her voice across continents.

In March 2017, the United Nations invited her to deliver a speech at its headquarters in New York.

“I was humbled to receive a standing ovation from international delegates when I shared my story,” the gender and disability rights advocate added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who interacted with the Nari Shakti Puraskar awardees in March, described her as an “adbhut naari” (wonder woman), Malvika recollected, stating the award makes her want to work more for women and disabled.

“It is unfortunate that accessibility remains a major issue in our country. There is a need for an attitudinal shift among the people, as discrimination is the main obstacle fro the disabled, making them feel excluded from society,” she pointed out.

Through her Ph.D. research on reasons for stigmatisation of people with disabilities, Malvika urged for a school curriculum that sensitises children from a young age on disabilities.

“I hope I can work with the state-run bodies and educational institutions to introduce a curriculum in schools for the youngsters to understand disability and eliminate pity and stigma,” Malvika said.

(IANS)

A woman was taken into custody after she climbed up to the robes of the Statue of Liberty to protest against President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, prompting the separation of thousands of children from their immigrant parents.

Authorities on Wednesday tried to talk the woman identified as Therese Patricia Okoumou, down but she refused to leave, reports CNN.

For nearly three hours, she crossed the base of the statue, at times sitting in the folds of the statue’s dress and under Lady Liberty’s sandal.

Okoumou was part of a group of protesters and had declared that she wouldn’t come down until “all the children are released”, a New York Police Department source told CNN.

She was brought down the statue with the help of about 16 officers with the New York City Police Department, Officer Brian Glacken said in a news conference Wednesday evening.

Earlier on Wednesday, other protesters unfurled a banner over a railing around the base of the statue saying “Abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)!”

At least seven people were arrested on Liberty Island and the site was closed to visitors.

India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the US are among the top 10 most dangerous countries for women, according to a new poll by Thomas Reuters Foundation.

The organization surveyed nearly 550 experts focused on women’s issues, asking them to rank countries based on a number of key issues, including access to healthcare, the prevalence of sexual abuse and discrimination.

The experts ranked India as the most dangerous country for women.

“The world’s second most populous nation, with 1.3 billion people, ranked as the most dangerous on three of the topic questions – the risk of sexual violence and harassment against women, the danger women face from cultural, tribal and traditional practices, and the country where women are most in danger of human trafficking including forced labour, sex slavery and domestic servitude,” the findings said.

The report specifically pointed to the 2012 gang rape and murder of Jyoti Singh, a 23-year-old physiotherapy student.

The rape of Singh caused widespread protests and drew international attention over violence against women.

Indian girls take a pledge to act towards stopping atrocity on women
The last time Thomas Reuters Foundation conducted the poll, India ranked fourth overall.

This year’s survey listed Afghanistan as the second most dangerous country for women.

The country was ranked as the most dangerous on the topics of non-sexual violence, including conflicted-related violence and domestic abuse, access to healthcare and access to economic resources.

The DRC was ranked seventh. It came in second in the 2011 poll.

On a visit to the DRC earlier this year, Norwegian Refugee Council chief Jan Egeland said that women and children were being exposed to the “worst sexual abuse ever”.

According to the United Nations, about 4.3 million people are internally displaced in the country due to violence aggravated by a political crisis sparked by President Joseph Kabila’s refusal to step down at the end of his mandate in 2016.

The United States was listed as the 10th most dangerous country for women, ranking third on the question of sexual violence and sixth on the issue of non-sexual violence.

Thomas Reuters Foundation pointed out that the survey was conducted after the #MeToo movement went viral last year after several women accused prominent Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual abuse.

Weinstein has since pleaded not guilty to rape and criminal sex act charges.

 since grown into a global movement against sexual violence against women, with many exposing the prevalence of sexual harassment and abuse in the workspace worldwide.

Almost one in five women have been raped, and more than one in three experienced rape, violence or stalking by an intimate partner in the US, according to 2010 statistics by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

People participate in a protest march for survivors of sexual assault and their supporters in Hollywood [File: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters]
It is worth noting that no Latin American country topped the list, despite many countries having high rates of femicide and 49 countries having no laws to protect women from domestic violence, according to UN Women.

Some including, Cindy Southworth, executive vice president at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, said that media coverage of #MeToo in the US may have attributed to this.

“People watch the US,” she told Reuters news agency. “They watch our elections. They watch our media coverage. They watch our celebrity violence against women cases.

“The perception is understandable, but not based on reality.”

Globally, it is estimated that one in three women experience physical or sexual violence during her lifetime, and nearly 750 million women and girls married before their 18th birthday.

Other countries that ranked among the top 10 were Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Yemen.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation poll was a repeat of a similar survey in 2011 that found Afghanistan, DRC, Pakistan, India, and Somalia was seen as the most dangerous countries for women.

 

Inside a dimly-lit classroom in this district, with its walls decorated with drawings and paintings made by children, Seema Yadav, 36, is teaching a group of 25 girls who are sitting in a circle in one corner. These are girls who were either never enrolled in school or had to drop out due to various reasons. They are now way behind academically compared to other students of their age.

At the Udaan innovatory bridge school of Care India, almost 125 km away from state capital Lucknow, such girls of 10 to 16 years age are taught for 11 months so they could catch up.

Every year, nearly 100 girls cover the syllabus of six years within 11 months. These girls then appear for the 5th Grade annual examination, which ensures their admission in any formal school in the state.

Almost 1,800 girls have been taught in this preparatory school set up by the Care India project in collaboration with Sarvodaya Ashram in 1999.

High dropout rate among girls is a serious concern in India. As per the 2017 Annual Survey of Education Report (ASER), once the eight years of elementary schooling are completed, girls begin to abandon schools in far greater numbers than boys.

According to the report, while at the primary level, 5.7 per cent girls are not enrolled in schools compared to 4.7 per cent boys, the enrollment gap widens steadily as they grow. At the secondary level, by the time they turn 18, over 32 per cent girls are not enrolled in schools compared to 28 per cent boys.

The survey suggests that the predominant reason for girls dropping out is family constraints. The study also reveals that over 70 per cent out-of-school youth have mothers who have never been to school.

Seema, a resident of Mirzapur district, was just 17 when she first started teaching here to help support her own education. She has been now associated with this residential school for the past 18 years.

Almost every girl in this school has a tragic tale to share: Of domestic violence, poverty, untouchability, discrimination and maginalisation which is prevalent in most districts of Uttar Pradesh. Seema is no exception.

As a child, she helplessly witnessed the horror of domestic violence for years. She would cower in a corner of her room and watch her jobless father go on a rampage in the house and take out his frustration on her mother.

She struggled to get away from that environment and eventually eloped with a man of another caste. However, her struggles were magnified when her husband, Hariram Singh, died of cancer a few years after the couple were married in a Sitarampur court.

“My father told me to forget everything and pretend as if I had never married. I told him I would marry again only when he gave me assurance that no domestic violence would happen. He gave me no answer,” she said.

“Some incidents you experience as a child leave you shattered throughout your life. I saw terrible things happening at my home that shattered my spirit,” Seema said.

When she was a child, there was pressure on her to quit her education and take up odd jobs, but she toiled hard, often trapped between discrimination and poverty. Her resolve eventually prevailed over adversity and she finally managed to graduate and become one of the handful of girls from her village to do so.

Seema went on to complete her post-graduation, finished her B.Ed. and also cleared the eligibility examination that qualified her to teach in government schools.

Now she teaches mathematics and life skills to girls who face similar adversities and tries to change their fate just a education changed hers.

According to Sangita 14, and Reetu,16, two students studying at Udaan school, “Seema didi is an inspiration.”

“When we were admitted in this school some months ago, we knew nothing. We feared to hold a pen; we could not read, write or speak properly for we lacked motivation and confidence. We are reading story books now, do ganit (mathematics), and enjoy doing extra-curriculum activities,” said Reetu, who has seen her share of domestic violence, especially when her father gets drunk.

She wants to become a police officer and prevent drunkards from committing crimes in her village.

According to the programme coordinator of the school, Urmila Srivastava, the Udaan project has inspired the entire state education system in Uttar Pradesh.

“The module of preparatory education has now been adopted by almost all preparatory schools across Uttar Pradesh which shows how influential our curriculum has been,” she said.

“We don’t just teach girls here, we educate them about the processes that are essential for their life such as leadership skill, behavior and personal hygiene. To bring reforms in the predominant casteist and illiteracy-riven state with child marriage issues, only focused education can bring long-term social changes,” added Vandana Mishra, the programme manager.

In a survey conducted by a team of Udaan teachers, 460 out of the 1,567 girls who graduated from this school were found still unmarried, suggesting that education helped them to negotiate their marriage. The survey also found that those girls were able to support themselves and helped with the education of their younger siblings as well.

“Most of the girls, after spending 11 months in this school, inspire their siblings at home to develop interest in studies and learn to maintain personal hygiene,” Vandana added.

However, the major problem the girl-students face is overall poverty in their homes and the lack of resources to continue their studies once they clear the fifth-class examination.

In 2017, Seema adopted a nine-year-old boy, Anirudh, from a relative. She says the satisfaction of nurturing children from marginalised backgrounds gives her more comfort than she can express in words.

“I see myself in their eyes. I relate my struggle with their life. I often cry with them… This inspires me to make more efforts to change their lives,” she says and breaks down.

On May 15 this year, a teenaged girl from Haryana embarked on the very challenging task of climbing Mount Everest from the Nepal side. But having dropped her radio transceiver during the trek, she couldn’t inform anyone about her whereabouts.

With no one able to contact her, there was hushed speculation that 16-year-old Shivangi Pathak might have lost her life in one of the world’s toughest mountain terrains.

After a tense 10 hours, a great piece of news came down the mountain and, later, her family in Hisar got to know about her epic triumph — she had become the youngest Indian woman to scale the highest peak of the Himalayas.

“We were extremely worried about her safety. Our whole family kept praying for hours for her safety without eating or drinking,” Shivangi’s mother Aarti Pathak, 42, told IANS.

“It was after a really long ordeal that we got to know that not only was our girl safe, but that she had also scaled the summit. I cannot describe in words what it felt like to hear this news. We are so proud of her. She achieved what she was determined to,” the mother said.

Now a recognisable celebrity across India, the journey of this go-getter girl to this huge accomplishment began with a joke made by her mother.

“We got to hear of an Everest summiter (Mamta Sodha) being appointed as a Deputy Superintendent of Police. I jokingly told Shivangi to do something as big so she gets a similar job,” Aarti said.

Later, Shivangi saw some videos on Arunima Sinha, the first Indian amputee to climb the peak. Inspired by her, Shivangi, in November 2016, decided to climb the Everest.

She trained herself for just over a year to prepare for the challenge.

The trainer she approached initially criticised her for being “too stylish” with her hair. “She asked me if I have come to the ground or for a fashion walk. I was fat, and had long hair then,” Shivangi recalled. “It hurt. I thought that maybe I am dreaming too big.”

What seemed too big then eventually became a reality with her hard work and dedication. She got her hair cut short and toiled to get in shape. Weighing 65 kgs two years back when she decided to climb the summit, she now weighs only 48 kgs.

“I started shaping myself according to the requirements of the sport. I got my hair cut very short, started training under the same trainer, Rinku Pannu. She is my guru. She encouraged me to do it. I am immensely grateful to her,” said Shivangi.

“It is pretty funny that because I had short hair, girls who came to the ground started hitting on me thinking of me to be a boy,” she laughed.

The training session went on for six to seven hours every day. Shivangi didn’t attend school and dedicated all her time preparing to climb the Everest.

One training session included a 10-km run, weight lifting, rope -skipping. She was made to run with a backpack of 20 kgs on her shoulders.

“At times, she would tie ankle weights and run. When tired, she put them on her wrist,” said her 27-year-old trainer.

One day during her training, she suddenly woke up from her sleep around 11.30 pm as she was yet to jump rope 200 times.

“I had promised my trainer that day that I would do it 5,000 times but I couldn’t complete. So, I woke up in between to do it before midnight,” said the summiter.

Pannu exclaimed, “Look at her dedication!”

On April 1, she landed in Nepal from where she trekked up to the base camp where she reached by April 5. This was followed by over two weeks of acclimatisation.

Finally, on May 10, she began her “Everest Mission”, as she called it.

“The route was full of stones and pebbles, and it was very slippery. There were many struggles. A storm hit the range a day before I reached the summit,” Shivangi said, adding that she had to constantly motivate herself to overcome all hurdles.

“Ice on the way was very hard. It wouldn’t break. Stepping on it would make us slip. There was also a day when I fell sick due to the weather conditions, but I refused to give up,” she said.

She was accompanied by a Nepalese guide, Ang Temba Sherpa, who was with her throughout the journey.

“My guide was like god for me in that journey — he treated me like a younger sister, didn’t let me miss my family. He was with me through all ups and downs,” she explained.

On May 15, at 8.21 am, she made it. “The first person on my mind was my mother. I desperately wanted to embrace her at that moment. I was so happy I made her proud.”

Hoisting the national flag at the highest peak of the Himalayas was “a great feeling” for her. “It was a moment of pride for me. This achievement turned out to be an inspiration for many girls in Haryana and in the country,” she said.

“I feel girls can do anything. They can go anywhere. They just have to make up their mind and have faith and determination towards what they want,” she added.

She urged girls’ parents to “encourage and support” them in their goals and never let them feel they are less than the boys.

“My parents were the biggest support and that is why I know how important it is for a girl to have her parents standing by her in her decisions,” she added.

Her next target is to climb to the highest summits of the rest of the continents before she turns 18.

“Seven summits before 18,” she said.

Pannu (her coach) said that this was going to be a cakewalk for her.

“She has climbed the highest in the world, reaching the highest of the other six continents won’t be tough.”

“She is a girl of ambition. She made so many sacrifices. She never complained even when she was made to slog, gave up on all her food delights, lost weight, made herself physically fit. I have confidence in her. She can do it, she will,” Pannu said.

The number of women leading the financial services sector in India is on a decline. If Chanda Kochhar leaves ICICI Bank permanently, the sector would lose its third high-profile female bank CEO in just months.

On Monday, ICICI bank said that CEO Chanda Kochhar would be on leave till the conclusion of an internal probe into her alleged conflict of interest and violation of lenders’ code of giving a loan of Rs 3,250 crore to Videocon group in 2012.

Whatever the outcome, it looks increasingly unlikely Kochhar, who has led the bank since 2009, will have her term renewed when it ends early next year. Her exit would follow Shikha Sharma who in December will step down after ten years atop Axis Bank. She had recently had her term extended to 2021, but local newspaper reports said the central bank had asked the board to reconsider this.
Both banks have struggled with bad loans and shareholder returns have underperformed peers. At the other end of the spectrum, Arundhati Bhattacharya retired as chief of State Bank of India last year after four solid years at the helm of the country’s largest lender.

Performance aside, its a blow for diversity. There were only 24 women CEOs in the S&P BSE 500 index, according to a study published in June by Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS).

The presence of Bhattacharya, Kochhar, and Sharma, along with female heads of the unlisted local operations of Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered, made gender diversity look like less of a problem in financial services. However, top bankers were overwhelmingly male, too, even before the exodus.

At the board level, there is 13 percent female representation as of March 2017 in the NIFTY 500, another important index, but a big improvement only came after regulators required listed companies to have at least one women director. Although the rules are unlikely to tighten further anytime soon, a report backed by IiAS says companies should target 20 percent by 2020.

Changing the broader dynamic looks tough. While New Delhi increased paid maternity leave last year from 12 to 26 weeks, that is not much help in a country where barely one-quarter of women are in the workforce, down from 35 percent in 1990. In the meantime, females who aspire to one day occupy the corner office will have fewer role models to emulate.

India Today