Marwari women have come a long way from times when their role was restricted to just homemaking. Today, as more and more of them prove their worth in other fields, some have chosen to walk alongside their male counterparts to take their family ventures to greater heights. We have featured two such dynamic ladies on our cover this issue: Madhu Neotia of Ambuja Neotia Group and Divya Jain of Safexpress. While Madhu Neotia’s contributions to the group’s healthcare and hospitality businesses and other initiatives intended at giving back to society deserve much commendation, Divya Jain has exemplified the tremendous potential of Marwari women through her roles of augmenting the family business and now spearheading the Safeducate initiative, which is involved in skilling youth and helping them to carve a better future.

Like Madhu Neotia and Divya Jain, the twin traits of enterprise and philanthropy run deep in Ruma Devi too, whose journey from a village girl to an icon of women’s empowerment through her roles of artisan, entrepreneur, social leader, fashion designer and crusader of change is most remarkable. As president of the Gramin Vikas Evam Chetna Sansthan, an NGO in Rajasthan’s Barmer district, the multiple award-winning entrepreneur-cum-altruist has overcome restrictive social mores and impediments to spearhead widespread change by empowering thousands of rural artisans of the Thar.

While most tend to turn a deaf ear to the story of the plight of the transgender community, Neelam Jain has demonstrated rare courage and empathy by giving up a cushy job to help them earn a respectable livelihood and improve their social standing. Jain upskills transgender people and helps them find inclusive employment in the corporate sector, while simultaneously promoting transgender inclusion in the workplace by providing inclusion and diversity consulting services to corporates through her social enterprise, PeriFerry.

With all this and more, we bring another interesting issue of MARWAR.