‘Siyahi’ announces the second edition of the Woman Up! Summit to be held on 27th and 28th October 2018 in Jaipur

Building on the success of last year’s edition, Siyahi – India’s leading literary agency is all set to host the second edition of the ‘Woman Up! Summit at Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur on 27th and 28th October 2018. Organized by an all-woman team under the leadership of Siyahi’s prolific Founder – Mita Kapur, Woman Up! is an inclusive platform that looks at the Women’s Movement through the lens of socio-economic and cultural development. The Summit was born out of an idea to create a conversation around the need for women to gain financial independence as the only viable means for empowerment. This idea also led to the birth of the campaign #WomenAtWork that focuses on inspiring organisations to not only increase the number of women in the workforce but also ensuring the re-integration and re-employment of women after sabbaticals they often need to take because of societal pressures and family commitments. Like the previous edition, this year too, the Summit will be driven by conversations, personal narratives and an exchange of ideas amongst women (and men!) to bring about real-time, visible changes to the modern Indian ‘workforce’. All the while celebrating women in professional spaces, there will be workshops and mentoring sessions that will dovetail with the existing #WomenAtWork initiative and help the attendees gain knowledge and hopefully, the first step to financial independence. The 2018 Summit is set to see trailblazers talk not just about their stories, but also unique, often unheard narratives of women, across class and caste barriers, who stepped out and helped not just redefine and reshape their lives but also those of others within their communities. Sharing her thoughts on the summit Mita Kapur - Founder of Siyahi said, “We are thrilled to have brought up some of the finest names across industries to be a part of the second edition of Woman Up! The ultimate purpose of the summit is to inspire and encourage women to forge their path towards economic empowerment; enhance women employment and women entrepreneurship. Our speaker line-up features role models who are trailblazing, each with powerful stories about how they are slowly yet steadily shaping diversity by taking positive, nurturing steps at their workplaces and eventually, affecting their industries at large.” She also shared, “We believe that more and more women need to be financially independent which will lead to their self-reliance and empowerment. It is increasingly important for not only corporates and multinational companies but also mid-range and smaller institutions to join the debate and pledge to support such initiatives. With the first edition of Woman Up in 2017, we launched #WomenAtWork where we hope to inspire organisations to generate opportunities for women to work outside of home and profiles that will allow them to work from home as well.” Some of the speakers for the summit include Aakriti Periwal - educationist; Aanya Soni - the youngest Indian to have gone to Antarctica for the 2041 Expedition with Robert Swan; Aditi Goyal - PR and Digital Marketing Expert; Ajaita Shah - Founder and CEO of Frontier Markets, and Frontier Innovations Foundation; Aparna Jain - author of Own It: Leadership Lessons from Women Who Do and Like a Girl: Real Stories for Tough Kids, leadership coach; Ashwin Mohan - Founder, Lightning Fist Karate; Dolly Singh - plus size yoga practitioner; Kalpana Bilwaal and Kalpana Palat - members of Jeevan Ashram Sanstha; Kaveri Lalchand - CEO, K Clothing; Major Dr Meeta Singh - Chairperson of Dignity of Girl Child Foundation; Leela Devi and Nisha Chauhan - work with Major Dr Meeta Singh on the child sex ratio balance; Manju Devi Yadav - the first female coolie of entire Northwestern railways region; Mita Kapur - Founder and CEO of Siyahi, India’s leading literary agency, festival producer, freelance journalist;Nirmala Kumari and Suman Kumari - Women Patrolling Unit; Nirupa Rao - Botanical Illustrator; Puja Arya - fashion designer; Radhika Sharma - Director, Jeevan Ashram Sanstha; Sabika Naqvi - poetess, Shilpa Sharma - Co-founder, Head of Curation & Retail, Jaypore; Shreyasi Goenka- co-director of Saat Saath Arts Foundation; andTejaswini Gautam - Deputy Commissioner of Police (HQ), Jaipur Commissionerate, IPS.