How women in rural India turned courage into capital | Chetna Gala Sinha

116,483 views ・ 2018-09-10

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00:12
I'm here to tell you not just my story
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but stories of exceptional women from India whom I've met.
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They continue to inspire me,
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teach me, guide me in my journey of my life.
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These are incredible women.
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They never had an opportunity to go to school,
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they had no degrees,
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no travel, no exposure.
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Ordinary women who did extraordinary things
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with the greatest of their courage,
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wisdom and humility.
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These are my teachers.
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For the last three decades,
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I've been working, staying and living in India
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and working with women in rural India.
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I was born and brought up in Mumbai.
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When I was in college,
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I met Jayaprakash Narayan,
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famous Gandhian leader
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who inspired youth to work in rural India.
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I went into the villages to work in rural India.
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I was part of land rights movement,
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farmers' movement
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and women's movement.
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On the same line,
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I ended up in a very small village,
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fell in love with a young, handsome, dynamic young farmer-leader
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who was not very educated,
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but he could pull the crowd.
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And so in the passion of youth,
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I married him
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and left Mumbai,
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and went to a small village which did not have running water
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and no toilet.
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Honestly, my family and friends were horrified.
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(Laughter)
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I was staying with my family,
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with my three children in the village,
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and one day,
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a few years later one day,
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a woman called Kantabai came to me.
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Kantabai said, "I want to open a saving account.
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I want to save."
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I asked Kantabai:
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"You are doing business of blacksmith.
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Do you have enough money to save?
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You are staying on the street.
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Can you save?"
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Kantabai was insistent.
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She said, "I want to save because I want to buy a plastic sheet
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before the monsoons arrive.
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I want to save my family from rain."
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I went with Kantabai to the bank.
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Kantabai wanted to save 10 rupees a day --
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less than 15 cents.
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Bank manager refused to open the account of Kantabai.
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He said Kantabai's amount is too small
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and it's not worth his time.
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Kantabai was not asking any loan from the bank.
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She was not asking any subsidy or grant from the government.
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What she was asking was to have a safe place
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to save her hard-earned money.
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And that was her right.
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And I went --
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I said if banks are not opening the account of Kantabai,
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why not start the bank
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which will give an opportunity for women like Kantabai to save?
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And I applied for the banking license to Reserve Bank of India.
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(Applause)
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No, it was not an easy task.
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Our license was rejected --
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(Laughter)
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on the grounds --
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Reserve Bank said that we cannot issue a license
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to the bank whose promoting members who are nonliterate.
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I was terrified.
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I was crying.
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And by coming back home,
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I was continuously crying.
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I told Kantabai and other women
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that we couldn't get the license because our women are nonliterate.
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Our women said, "Stop crying.
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We will learn to read and write
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and apply again, so what?"
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(Applause)
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We started our literacy classes.
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Every day our women would come.
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They were so determined that after working the whole day,
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they would come to the class and learn to read and write.
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After five months,
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we applied again,
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but this time I didn't go alone.
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Fifteen women accompanied me to Reserve Bank of India.
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Our women told the officer of Reserve Bank,
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"You rejected the license because we cannot read and write.
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You rejected the license because we are nonliterate."
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But they said, "There were no schools when we were growing,
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so we are not responsible for our noneducation."
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And they said, "We cannot read and write,
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but we can count."
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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And they challenged the officer.
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"Then tell us to calculate the interest of any principal amount."
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(Laughter)
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"If we are unable to do it,
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don't give us license.
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Tell your officers to do it without a calculator
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and see who can calculate faster."
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(Applause)
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Needless to say,
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we got the banking license.
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(Laughter)
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(Applause)
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Today, more than 100,000 women are banking with us
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and we have more than 20 million dollars of capital.
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This is all women's savings,
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women capital,
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no outside investors asking for a business plan.
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No.
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It's our own rural women's savings.
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(Applause)
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I also want to say that yes,
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after we got the license,
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today Kantabai has her own house
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and is staying with her family
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in her own house for herself and her family.
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(Applause)
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When we started our banking operations,
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I could see that our women were not able to come to the bank
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because they used to lose the working day.
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I thought if women are not coming to the bank,
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bank will go to them,
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and we started doorstep banking.
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Recently, we starting digital banking.
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Digital banking required to remember a PIN number.
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Our women said, "We don't want a PIN number.
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That's not a good idea."
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And we tried to explain to them
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that maybe you should remember the PIN number;
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we will help you to remember the PIN number.
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They were firm.
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They said, "suggest something else,"
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and they --
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(Laughter)
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and they said, "What about thumb?"
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I thought that's a great idea.
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We'll link that digital banking with biometric,
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and now women use the digital financial transaction
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by using the thumb.
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And you know what they said?
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They said, "Anybody can steal my PIN number
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and take away my hard-earned money,
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but nobody can steal my thumb."
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(Applause)
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That reinforced the teaching which I have always learned from women:
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never provide poor solutions to poor people.
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They are smart.
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(Applause)
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A few months later,
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another woman came to the bank --
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Kerabai.
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She mortgaged her gold and took the loan.
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I asked Kerabai, "Why are you mortgaging your precious jewelry
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and taking a loan?"
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Kerabai said, "Don't you realize that it's a terrible drought?
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There's no food or fodder for the animals.
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No water.
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I'm mortgaging gold to buy food and fodder for my animals."
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And then she asks me, "Can I mortgage gold and get water?"
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I had no answer.
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Kerabai challenged me: "You're working in the village
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with women and finance,
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but what if one day there's no water?
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If you leave this village,
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with whom are you going to do banking?"
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Kerabai had a valid question,
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so in this drought,
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we decided to start the cattle camp in the area.
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It's where farmers can bring their animals to one place
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and get fodder and water.
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It didn't rain.
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Cattle camp was extended for 18 months.
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Kerabai used to move around in the cattle camp
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and sing the songs of encouragement.
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Kerabai became very popular.
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It rained and cattle camp was ended,
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but after cattle camp ended,
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Kerabai came to our radio --
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we have community radio
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which has more than 100,000 listeners.
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She said, "I want to have a regular show on the radio."
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Our radio manager said, "Kerabai, you cannot read and write.
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How will you write the script?"
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You know what she replied?
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"I cannot read and write,
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but I can sing.
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What's the big deal?"
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(Laughter)
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And today,
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Kerabai is doing a regular radio program,
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and not only that,
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she's become a famous radio jockey
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and she has been invited by all of the radios,
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even from Mumbai.
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She gets the invitation and she does the show.
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(Applause)
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Kerabai has become a local celebrity.
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One day I asked Kerabai,
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"How did you end up singing?"
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She said, "Shall I tell you the real fact?
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When I was pregnant with my first child,
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I was always hungry.
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I did not have enough food to eat.
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I did not have enough money to buy food,
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and so to forget my hunger, I started singing."
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So strong and wise, no?
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I always think that our women overcome so many obstacles --
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cultural, social, financial --
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and they find out their ways.
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I would like to share another story:
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Sunita Kamble.
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She has taken a course in a business school,
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and she has become a veterinary doctor.
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She's Dalit;
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she comes from an untouchable caste,
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but she does artificial insemination in goats.
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It is a very male-dominated profession
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and it is all the more difficult for Sunita
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because Sunita comes from an untouchable caste.
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But she worked very hard.
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She did successful goat deliveries in the region
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and she became a famous goat doctor.
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Recently, she got a national award.
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I went to Sunita's house to celebrate --
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to congratulate her.
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When I entered the village,
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I saw a big cutout of Sunita.
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Sunita was smiling on that picture.
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I was really surprised to see an untouchable,
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coming from the village,
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having a big cutout at the entrance of the village.
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When I went to her house,
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I was even more amazed
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because upper caste leaders --
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men -- were sitting in the house, in her house,
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and having chai and water,
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which is very rare in India.
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Upper caste leaders do not go to an untouchable's house
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and have chai or water.
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And they were requesting her
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to come and address the gathering of the village.
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Sunita broke centuries-old caste conditioning in India.
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(Applause)
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Let me come to what the younger generations do.
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As I'm standing here --
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I'm so proud as I stand here,
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from Mhaswad to Vancouver.
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Back home, Sarita Bhise --
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she's not even 16 years old.
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She's preparing herself --
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she's a part of our sports program,
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Champions' program.
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She's preparing herself to represent India in field hockey.
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And you know where she's going?
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She's going to represent in 2020 Olympics, Tokyo.
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(Applause)
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Sarita comes from a very poor shepherd community.
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I am just -- I couldn't be more proud of her.
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There are millions of women like Sarita, Kerabai, Sunita,
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who can be around you also.
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They can be all over the world,
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but at first glance you may think that they do not have anything to say,
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they do not have anything to share.
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You would be so wrong.
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I am so lucky that I'm working with these women.
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They are sharing their stories with me,
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they are sharing their wisdom with me,
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and I'm just lucky to be with them.
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20 years before --
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and I'm so proud --
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we went to Reserve Bank of India
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and we set up the first rural women's bank.
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Today they are pushing me to go to National Stock Exchange
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to set up the first fund dedicated to micro rural women entrepreneurs.
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They are pushing me to set up
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the first small finance women's bank in the world.
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And as one of them said,
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"My courage is my capital."
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And I say here,
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their courage is my capital.
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And if you want,
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it can be yours also.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)
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