Women at the wheel drive change
IKEA’s upcoming Hyderabad store has eight women forklift drivers
Bleseena and Sirisha may come across as ordinary young working women, but if you see them at work, your perception is bound to change.
For, their job is a little unusual — they are forklift truck drivers in what is a male-dominated field. Working in the logistics wing of IKEA’s upcoming Hyderabad store, they drive forklifts and operate them to carry material loads and stack pallets onto warehouse shelves or trucks. And in doing so with competence and ease, they shattered the myth that women shy away from taking up jobs that are ‘meant’ for men.
A forklift is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances as part of logistics operations. In a country where not many women are seen driving vehicles, Ikea Hyderabad store has eight women forklift drivers, and another 10 in its Pune distribution centre.
Impressed with them, the Swedish home furnishing and furniture major has more recruitments underway for its upcoming store in Hyderabad and distribution centres across India.
Family support
Sharing how they garnered support from their respective families and male colleagues who initially scoffed at them, they told The Hindu, “We convinced them to let us undergo training and after that, there was no looking back.”
What motivated the young women to break work barriers? City-bred Bleseena, youngest of four siblings, wanted to have a job before getting married.
After securing one in a private company as a packing co-worker, she saw male colleagues operating forklift trucks and wanted to try her hand at it.
After her manager reluctantly let her train, Bleseena surprised him by learning to operate forklift truck in just a week.
After joining IKEA that was looking to ensure gender balance in all its operations, she further trained to drive IKEA’s specialised forklift machine.
With a supportive husband, the mother of an 18-month-old girl says her ambition is to motivate more women to enter the field.
Sirisha, hailing from Addanki in Andhra Pradesh, had to persuade her husband to let her work as a forklift operator. “My proud moment was when my father, who could never learn driving, was happy to see me driving the big machine. My wish is now to train more women in rural areas to be forklift operators,” says Sirisha.
Globally, women constitute 55% of IKEA’s workforce and 49% of leadership roles were held by women.
In India, women constitute 48% of the workforce and the target is to achieve 50:50 in all levels and functions, says Anna-Carin Mansson, Retail Country HR Manager, IKEA.
“From accuracy to due diligence, women bring good skill set to the workplace. They are enthusiastic, ambitious and importantly have the values which IKEA swears by,” says John Achillea, MD, IKEA-Telangana.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by M.L. Melly Maitreyi / Hyderabad – March 07th, 2018
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Gymnast has emotional reunion with family
Aruna accorded ceremonial welcome by students of Gnana Prabha and Donald Memorial High School
It was an emotional reunion with her mother for World Cup gymnastics bronze medallist Aruna Reddy when she stepped into her residence on her return after three months, at Attapur here on Friday.
Even as the mother-daughter duo got teary-eyed, the first thing the latter did was to walk across the hall to garland the photo of her late father-cum-mentor Narayana Reddy.
“But for him, I would not have been in this position. I miss him badly in this moment of joy,” she said, choking with emotions.
She was accorded a touching ceremonial welcome by the students of Gnana Prabha and Donald Memorial High School.
In 2010, everything seemed to have come to a dead-end. Her father Narayana Reddy, who used to take her on his two-wheeler from the school to Lal Bahadur Stadium for training, passed away. Yet, Aruna showed great courage and did not let the trauma of losing her mentor deter her from pursuing gymnastics training.
“I felt the best tribute to him is to make it big in the sport. And this would not have been possible without the amazing support I got from my mother (Subadhara), elder sister Pavani and brother-in-law Janardhan Reddy. They are a huge support to me after my father’s demise,” said Aruna. “Aruna’s father was always more concerned about his daughter than himself. He never had food on time, was always eager to see that his daughter didn’t miss either the school or the training programme,” recalls Aruna’s mother. “He had the biggest impact on her,” she added. “Frankly, we were expecting an international medal, but not the World Cup bronze so soon,” she said.
For her part, Pavani said all their support would have come to nothing if Aruna had not backed it by her determination to do well. “The credit goes to her for pursuing gymnastics with the same passion even after our father’s death,” she said.
“There were moments of despair when she had a shoulder injury a few years ago. But Aruna was back with confidence. That was the critical phase when we were all tense,” she said.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> States> Telangana / by V.V. Subrahmanyam / Hyderabad – March 02nd, 2018
A tinkerer’s paradise
Tinkerers’ lab inaugurated at IIT Hyderabad
A tinkerers’ lab was inaugurated at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IITH), at Kandi mandal headquarters here on Thursday.
Established on the hostel premises to let both students and teachers have access to the lab round the clock, it has 3D printer and miniature CMC machine. It’s a space to explore technology and tinker with whatever possible to convert creative ideas into practical products.
This is the third tinkerers’ lab established at an IIT in the country with the first coming up at IIT-Mumbai four years ago followed by IIT Gandhi Nagar in Gujarat in January.
These tinkerers’ labs were established by the alumni of 1975 batch of IIT-Mumbai.
“Tinkering in the early stage and creating something, however small it may be, will help students learn many aspects of innovation that they may not learn in a classroom,” said Hemanth Kanakia, chief guest at the inauguration ceremony and general partner at Columbia Capital, U.S.A., while addressing the students and faculty. He is also the alumni of IIT-Mumbai who is instrumental in establishing the lab.
“This is the first sponsored lab at IIT-H. The alumni of IIT-Mumbai have come forward to help us. The lab will be helpful for students and teachers to experiment and fix things. It would be better if students learn to tinker and fix things at an early stage,” said U.B. Desai, Director, IIT-H.
A team of 10 students – Lalith, Shashank, Shaswath, Rahul Devaraj, Jayasimha, Sourab Soni, Kishore, Chaitanya Sagar and Rajiv Jain – would lead the lab guided by Sushmee Badhulika and Viswanth.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Hyderabad / by R. Avadhani / Kandi – March 02nd, 2018