The young entrepreneur is dedicatedly working for girl education and employment opportunities at the grassroots level
Anoushka Adya is a young socio-entrepreneur from the metropolitan city of Mumbai. Her NGO Lajja Foundation works for the cause of girls’ education and employment at the grassroots level. Anoushka, who has a graduate degree in Marketing & Strategy from Warwick Business school in the UK and has worked there in the field of marketing left the rising career to return to her homeland and work for a cause she felt passionate about.
She has been working to support the girl children in urban slums who have left the schools because of poor financial conditions. Her NGO provides financial support to get these girl’s admission to school or colleges on a case-to-case basis. During her year journey as a woman entrepreneur working for a social cause, Anoushka has faced many ups and downs. The topmost of them is the struggle to change the social conditioning of both the girls and the parents. There are a whole lot of schemes by the government for girl education but lack of awareness and willingness to send the girl child for education is the reason that many girls are left out. The team of Lajja foundation counsels the parents and then provides the necessary support to send them to school or higher education.
“Being a woman entrepreneur, itself becomes a hurdle sometimes, as patriarchal mindset still rules the society. Women at every level face discrimination. This can only be negated when more and more women constitute to the earning workforce and become the drivers of change.”
Besides Lajja Foundation Anoushka is also the founder of Grow Lab, a firm that works in the field of mental health issues. It provides online support and consultancy to people with mental health-related issues with the help of qualified professionals.
Heading the organizations that work in diversely different domains hasn’t been an easy task, but Anoushka is doing it with complete professional commitment. Her advice to aspiring women entrepreneurs is “Never give up! Talent and intelligence are great, but they mean very little without perseverance. In a journey as a business leader, setbacks are certain, whether big or small, take them in your stride and move past. I know how difficult this can be, but when I get discouraged, I try to remind myself of our larger purpose with Lajja Foundation and Grow Labs.”
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