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Women of steel, who possess light

Among the many gender op programs that exist in the corporate world, the story of the Tejaswinis in Tata Steel, are a shining example, says Amy Fernandes

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A Tejaswini ambulance driver
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If there's a job to be done such as welding, calibrating fuel injection pumps, driving earth movers, gas cutting, surface grinding, etc, in a steel plant, conventional wisdom dictates that men would be hired to do this job, right?

And yet, on the factory floors of Tata Steel in Jamshedpur, there's a workforce of women called the Tejaswini (translated as women who possess light), who work shoulder to shoulder with their male colleagues.

Their story began in 2002 when the then MD JJ Irani saw how internationally, women were working heavy machinery in factories and figured they could try this in India as well. It would also serve to provide women employees at Tata Steel with a platform to unleash their potential, who otherwise would have lost their jobs due to a surplus in labour. While the thought aligned with the company's policy to initiate programs for its female force, this one took some doing because the women they wished to co-opt were simple, sari- and salwar-kameez-clad women, who worked earlier as casual labourers or cleaners or unloaders. The difficulty was not in getting the women to enrol in the program, but for the women themselves to get a buy-in from their families for these jobs. Yet, when the first announcement was made, 40 women signed up for 13 vacancies!

Take the case of Savitaben who recalls her story in 2009 (in the book Tata Planet People: Women Inc.). She had joined as a loader and later shifted to being the 'tea girl'. People would see her in a Gujarati-styled sari, working away to make ends meet for her ailing husband and two daughters. Tejaswini seemed to her an avenue to better her family's life. However, when reality presented itself in the form of a tractor, she was overwhelmed, not just by the enormous machine, but, "I had never worn trousers and shirts before!". Yet every time she felt shaken, she thought of her family and that gave her the impetus to get up on that tractor, and despite being alarmed at "the wheels that just kept moving and moving", she persevered. It was no mean task, but the program not just bettered her family life, but kindled a much-needed spark that made her proud of herself and her work, "because my children are proud of me!"

Thus, what began as an experiment, gradually turned out to be a phenomenal success. The success stories continue:

Jasumati was widowed at 22 and worked as a reja or worker at the plant, where she swept the floors and cleaned the roads. Today, she's a pro at welding, gas-cutting and reconditioning heavy duty air-conditioners and refitting them. Today, she is regarded as a skilled worker by the Supervisors and Officers of her unit. In 2005, she was conferred the Prime Minister's Shram Devi Award.

Another such awardee is Chitra Murmu, a mother of three from Jharkhand. Her job as a cleaner didn't stop her from signing up for training for skills of mechanical maintenance. Work such as welding, gas cutting, rigging, lubrication, fitting, precision measurement, assembly and disassembly, limit fits and tolerance, mechanical drawing, etc, on a typical shop floor is done by men. She wasn't sure how she would be regarded by her male colleagues, who might consider her a threat to their position or worse, laugh at her. But she overcame these hurdles and soon became a respected member of the mechanical clique and illustrates the point that women can shoulder tough maintenance jobs as well as any man.

There are many wonderful stories of the Tejaswini project — too many to mention here. From the 13-member Tejaswini that started, the number has now swelled to 50 of which seven women have been awarded the Prime Minister's Shram Devi award. If this is not shining light, what is?

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