NAR India Blog 2012

First influencers, then catalysts and now storming into what can be conveniently called the last male bastion - real estate. Indian mothers have indeed come a long way to prove that the challenging job of realty business can be managed along with family responsibilities and bringing up the children. Ravi Sinha salutes the mother. When the mother of a three-yearold baby, Ramya Agnihotri (name changed on request) joined a Mumbaibased real estate company, her neighbours had suspicion in their eyes and colleagues were visibly uncomfortable in the presence of a woman. It took around a decade for this marketing director to scale up the professional ladder but more than that, the real challenge was to make sure she is treated on an equal footing as an employee and alongside, not neglecting the upbringing of her child. Similar is the story of Anuradha Gandhi, director, Property Solutions (I) Pvt Ltd, a Kalpataru Group company, where she leads the project management, facility management and mall management services of the company. Gandhi is well-qualified to face the multiple challenges of the real estate sector professionally but the larger challenge at hand is bringing up her two daughters while taking up the demanding job of real estate. “I come from a progressive family where I had supportive parents and an encouraging husband but looking back, I feel times have really changed. Even in our organisation, now around 30 per cent employees are women” smiles Gandhi. However, all mothers in real estate did not enjoy this comfort zone. Ashwin Puri, CEO of Mumbai-based PPZ had to deal with a lot of challenges on the job. It is difficult for a working mother to take up key positions in this industry as it thrives on relationships, networking and contacts. It is challenging for a woman to stay late for dinners, share a drink with a developer in the evening to build relationships. These realities put women on the back foot. “At one point of time, I was lucky to get an opportunity to work as a development consultant whose role starts from undertaking a full site and catchment appraisal, to preparing a detailed design brief for architects and controlling the entire design development process and a project team to adhere to this brief and vision of the developer,” she adds. “Earlier, not many women got such openings but today, there are many such opportunities which would suit a woman and she would add immense value despite the existing practical constraints,” shares Puri. Renuka Chohan, head of corporate planning, RNA Corp, had a supportive husband and loving mother-inlaw who never questioned long duration official tours, late hours and leaving her only son behind. “Earlier, there were very few women and that too, mostly in architecture and design. Now, working women are everywhere in real estate including sales and marketing. If you are a mother of a small kid back home, society by and large, is accepting it as a way of life now,” beams Chohan. As Ashwin Puri says, “Women are making a steady progress in this industry and in the recent two/three years, I find myself smiling to see more number of women as a part of the project team which was not the case earlier.”

Via TOI