Vivo aims to enable women to become enabler of Indian biz fraternity: Geetaj Channana

Smartphone brand Vivo recently rolled out its latest digital campaign – ‘The Seat - Celebration of Women in STEM’. Indian society is making significant progress, however, women are still struggling to take up careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. It has been claimed by a research study that despite the largest enrolment of Women in STEM in India, only a few of them enter the workforce. Thus, there is a need for empowering Indian women wanting to take up STEM careers.

As stated by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the percentage of female students enrolled in STEM courses is around 43%, which is one of the highest worldwide and Women in STEM are making significant contributions to the growth story of India.

Women constitute nearly about 14% of the total Indian workforce in STEM fields, as per a report by the National Science Foundation. Moreover, only 35% of the students in STEM in higher education are women according to a UNESCO study. Despite obstacles, several inspirational Women in STEM fields have overcome many hardships in life, achieving extraordinary success such as Anandibai Gopalrao Joshi, Kamala Sohonie, Janaki Ammal, Rajeshwari Chatterjee, Kalpana Chawla, Anna Mani, Bibha Chowdhuri, Iravati Karve and many others.

The Digital Video Commercial (DVC) released by Vivo, portrays the many obstacles that the women who are aspiring to be STEM professionals have to face, especially those who belong to economically underprivileged backgrounds. The film emphasises the fact how the provision of equitable opportunities as well as resources for the empowerment of women and for the realization of their ultimate potential in STEM fields is important. It portrays how young women from several parts of India who have secured their place at a premiere Science institute, embark on their journeys by carrying chairs of their own along with them. The chairs here signify their resolution and determination for making their place or earning their seats in premiere institutes.

In conversation with Adgully, Geetaj Channana, Head of Corporate Strategy, Vivo India, underscores the importance of providing adequate support for ‘Women in STEM’ by saying, “I think to succeed at the workplace, it is not only important to have the money to complete your education, you need to have the intent to complete it also. And you should have the soft skills that are required to succeed in business.” Excerpts -

What is the concept behind the DVC ‘The Seat – Celebration of Women in STEM’ by Vivo?

I would take you back two years ago when we started thinking about this. It is not just a film that we have come up with. This is when we started thinking about our CSR efforts in the country and how we want to approach this as we move forward in India. When we were thinking about our CSR efforts, we thought about how we can make a meaningful impact in India. We have been a corporation that is nearing about 10 years of its presence in India. We are going to complete 10 years by the end of this year in India, and we wanted to do something meaningful in the country. Education and women are the two things that we zeroed down on. We have a program called ‘Vivo Ignite’ and this program is a part of that initiative.

‘Vivo Ignite’ focuses on two things. One is for students who are in classes eight to twelve, and the second is for women who are completing their STEM education. Now, the question is, why did we even think of this? Why these women? There are so many other things that we can do. We can go and build schools in villages. But why do we want to support these women? While we were doing our research, we figured out that while the allocation or the number of women who are enrolling in STEM courses in India is the highest, less than 20% of these women make it to the workforce. Over 80% don’t even make it to the workforce. It could be because they were not able to complete their education. It could be because they come from such backgrounds that it is very difficult for them to transition into the corporate culture.

We aim to enable women to become an enabler of the Indian business fraternity. We want them to contribute positively to India, and we want them to support themselves and their families to grow. That is the idea behind this.

Here, we are supporting women from across 109 cities in India, across 18 states, and with a focus on underprivileged women to help them transition into the workforce. These are women who have done something in life. They are not just underprivileged. And this is what we are trying to show in the film. They have their seat. They have their chair that they are getting along. They have secured their place where they are. These are some of the top technology institutions in the country. It is not very easy to get in, but they have got there. So, what can we do to help them succeed? Through this program, we are helping them transition into the workforce. And that is key to this program.

This film is not the end or the beginning of the program. It is a celebration of their success. That is what we are trying to show here. Next year also we might be sitting across the table and talking about the same thing, because it is not something that is going to end with this initiative. We are going to continue providing our support. We are supporting women from 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th year of their education. So, together with the shooting Stars Foundation, we are making that effort and hopefully we will have more successes to show in the future of more Women in STEM transitioning into the workforce. This is the first year of this initiative. We have started thinking about it long ago, but this is the first year that we are implementing it.

We are targeting every Indian here, every Indian woman who wants to succeed in STEM. That’s why we are supporting women across 109 cities right now. And optimistically, it will grow in the future.

How will you grow this initiative?

There are three parts to this. One is identifying the right candidate. Second is providing scholarships, and third is providing mentorship. So, identifying the right women, providing a scholarship of about Rs 60,000 that we are giving to each woman here, supporting them with money and  providing them with mentorship, with soft skills training, etc., which can help them in really succeeding in what they are meaning to do themselves, are how we are helping the Women in STEM.

Which creative agency has conceptualised the campaign and what is its marketing mix?

FCB Ulka has worked on this film for us, while the campaign has been conceptualised by Vivo in India. For the media mix, we are going predominantly digital.

What is the significance of the chairs as shown in the video and what does it signify?

These chairs signify the place that they have secured. If you see in the film, all these women are carrying their chairs, it is the seat that they have secured. Our intention is to bring those chairs in the right place. They have reached the institute themselves, but how can we help them transition these chairs from the institute into the corporate world? They have reached with these chairs to the midpoint, which is their education journey. How can we ensure their chairs stay there and they are not thrown out? How can we ensure that these chairs reach the right place and enable them to grow and succeed in their life? They become engineers who are adding to the growth story of India. The chair is a metaphor. A chair signifies a place that they have. It is the stamp that they have and it is their place in society and the business world while they have brought their chairs from where they come from. But where we go with this chair is what we are enabling.

What are the expectations out of this campaign and how is digital media leveraged to make this campaign more impactful?

The campaign is a celebration of the strength of the women of this country. I think it is how they are fighting all the hardships, coming from such backgrounds that you can’t even imagine. And coming from that background to secure a place at a premier technology institution, which anyway has a lesser percentage of women, is a very big task. It is our celebration. We are just celebrating their success and we are just making people aware that there is support available if you want to succeed and we are there to help you out.

What are the other activities under the Women in STEM initiative by Vivo this year on the occasion of Women’s Day?

‘Women in STEM’ is a part of the ‘Ignite’ initiative by Vivo. We are also supporting students between classes eight and twelve who want to make a difference in technology. We ran a competition which has just concluded with 19,000-plus students registered across the country, where about 4,000 students submitted their projects in science and technology which were created for the social good. They are not just your usual science projects that we all did in school. They all land in a landfill. What we are supporting are projects that are going to make a difference in the society. So, we gave them prizes, but that is just monetary. We also tied up with NCERT and IIT Roorkee’s Divya Sampark initiative, wherein apart from the cash prizes to students, which was close to about Rs 25 lakh in total, the top 25 students would be evaluated by Divya Sampark and given incubation support. If they are good, IIT will ensure that they are able to convert into actual products and services that can help the society.