As part of our endeavour to share with our community some of the powerful and inspiring stories from the entrepreneurship world, we spoke to Harshita Bhardwaj to understand more about her social entrepreneurship initiative SheWings. Lets read more about her journey and how she is making an impact to the lives of underprivileged!
Excerpts from our conversation with Harshita:
Tell us a little bit about yourself and your venture she wings, please;
I come from a nuclear business class family but at the same time very conservative family as none of the females ever done job or business in my family. I am the eldest one in my generation, very much loved and pampered kid. My parents wanted me to be a Doctor, but at a very early stage (when I was 13) they realised that I have an interest in Fashion. So they never stopped me and allowed me to fly high in whatever direction I wanted to. So I did my graduation in Fashion Designing and Technology, for further studies, I went abroad and did my masters in Fashion Management. And coming back I started my own fashion brand doing haute couture designs.
Being a creative person, my thoughts have no limits. Nothing can limit me. Settling down in Fashion was the biggest satisfaction for me but something was lacking, and that was the work for the betterment of society.
I am a very serious follower and believer in ethics and sustainability. The concern of women hygiene and environment being harmed made me think for working towards Women Menstrual Hygiene Management and this is when ‘SheWings’ came into existence.
The reason behind or the story behind the name is to give wings to women/girls. We spread awareness about Menstrual Hygiene, fight against period poverty and ask women to be open about it as it is nothing to be ashamed of or hide.
Why did you choose this great cause?
I used to see people working for women empowerment and girl education, which motivated me to bring a topic that has been spoken the least about. People know it’s important, it is normal but still, even in high societies people don’t talk about it, this is the reason many women who don’t have resources are left behind. ‘SheWings’ want to be that voice all over India.
Since only 12% of menstruating Indian Women use sanitary napkins, the question has never raised upon what happens to the rest 88%. ‘We are fighting to make sanitary pads accessible to every woman’.
Also, the other major issue that has been faced by women across India, is how to dispose of sanitary pads. ‘We also educate women about the right way to dispose of pads’.
What gets you out of bed in the morning i.e. what’s your source of motivation?
Whoaa finally you asked me this question, this is something I have been waiting to answer. My biggest source of motivation is Mr Madan Mohit Bhardwaj (SheWings Founder), and a very dear friend of mine. One of the very few people who think about others first, especially about women and the environment.
I have seen him helping women going out of his way and caring for the environment like that’s his first love. Talking about his background, he is Amity University graduate and has more than 10 years of experience in Journalism. During his journalism career, he was exposed to so many villages and towns where he noticed a menstrual hygiene problem as a major issue and decided to work for the betterment of society.
What gets me out of bed in the morning trust me it’s always the thought of doing something new, innovative for the betterment of society. I sleep with same thoughts, I wake up with some thoughts and trust me it is something that keeps running in my mind all the time. Thanks to God and Madan, I have been able to bring a lot of changes may be on a smaller scale today but soon we will be all around the World. We will very soon be introducing a few things that have never been heard or thought of by anyone so far. Trust me it will blow out the minds of major players of this industry.
What challenges/obstacles did you face in your journey so far?
In the initial days, it was hard to connect to the people to make them understand our perspective and take them along with us in our journey. We resolved this problem by sticking to our words and despite hardships consistently working in the direction of creating awareness about period poverty among the masses.
Coming to the business obstacles, I would say it is a lack of resources and the right people for the expansion. We have a very dedicated team of young people but for future expansion, we would need experienced people, innovative minds and passionate people to work in this industry for the betterment of the society. Although, with a clearly defined process, and innovative means to reach out to the right resource, we are confident enough that we will mitigate it.
Tell our audience more about your failures? How should one bounce back?
I believe that you can’t learn if you don’t fail. You learn out of your failures. Failures should never be demotivating although it should be motivating to beat your failures.
Just an example to give, which I generally give to all people who crib about their failures a lot. Imagine a situation, where you are driving on a very smooth wide highway non-stop for 5 hours and the other situation where you are driving with few breakers on road. Which situation will keep you awake and alert? Obviously, it’s the road with breakers.
So obstacles and failures might make you reach to the destination late but it will be worthy.
Just believe in yourself, work hard and believe in one saying ‘Try, try till you succeed’. Never lose hope.
Failures are part of our beautiful journey.
What comes first for you – money or emotions?
I am a very emotional person. Only an emotional and a sensitive person can relate to the need of people, society, environment and can do social service.
I would have never been able to understand the need for this cause if I was not emotional.
Money is obviously the need but I believe if your value creation process is right for others, the money will automatically come as an outcome of it.
How do you handle the pressure and manage stress?
Smiles on the faces of women manage all my stress. Every Sunday, when I visit the slum areas to address these deprived women problems and then when we give them free pads. The happiness, smiles, blessings that I get back are priceless. It all melts my stress.
And the strong believe of my colleagues and Madan, especially on me, keeps me motivated to handle all the pressure. And trust me I am not alone to handle the pressure, I have continuous support from my core team who stand by me in every situation.
Last but not least, support from my family and friends is priceless to take away all my left overpressure and stress.
What advice would you give to someone starting out, particularly to aspiring women entrepreneurs?
One biggest advice that I would like to give to all aspiring entrepreneurs is that follow your passion. Work, out of your passion keeping yourself motivated. Be true to yourself.
Being an entrepreneur needs a lot of courage and self-motivation, as an entrepreneur’s life is all about taking a risk. It takes time to turn a unique idea into a miracle and the time that lapses during the development of your company leads to a lot of family tension and anxiety also the societal pressure. Self- motivation is a must at that time for any entrepreneur.
Always remember,
It’s either winning or learning. Word losing has no existence.
Where is your venture based (city, state, country) & What are your geographical target areas?
Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India.
As far as awareness is concerned we are doing campaigns on the ground level in and around the Delhi/NCR, in a process to start in Dehradun by this September. And we have so far done big conclaves where we had policymakers, bureaucrats, big politicians and celebrities. Done conclaves in Delhi University, Amity University, PHD Chamber and Constitution Club.
Coming up conclaves in Dehradun, Jaipur, Jammu & Kashmir and Indore.
The geographical target area is entire India and going further all the countries out of India.
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Note: If you have a similar story to share with our audience and would like to be featured on our online magazine, then please write to us at [email protected], we will review your story and extend an invitation to feature if it is worth publishing.
