Opportunities for Women in Logistics and transport

Gurgaon, Haryana, 1st February 2017: WiLAT, Women in Logistics and transport organised a seminar on Opportunities for women in Logistics and Transport in association with The Entrepreneurship School, Gurgaon. The objective of the seminar was to bring leaders from logistics and transport sector on a common platform and discuss career as well as StartUp Opportunities for women in logistics in various industry verticals. 

Second row From Left - Mr. Masroor Lodi, Mr. Sylvan, Ms. RIcha Sharma, Ms. Sunilla, Ms. Veni Mathur , Ms. Himanshi Lydia SIngh, Mr. Sanjeeva SHivesh,. Mr. Alok SIngh, Ms. Vineet & Ms Priyanka Nautiyal ( 2nd row from right) First row from left - Ms. Sunita (Procam), Ms. P. Alli Rani, Ms. Ragini Yechuri

Venue: The Entrepreneurship School .At present, the country's logistics industry is worth $300 billion, according to the Logistics Market in India 2015-2020 by market researcher Novonous. In fact, the report states, Indian logistics market itself is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 12.17 percent by 2020. Logistics contributes almost about 14 percent to India's GDP and if you include all service providers and modes of transport, it is also the industry with the largest employment base and maximum opportunities for jobs. Why is then the women workforce in the sector less than 10%? How are we going to involve more women in this success story?

Mrs. Yechuri addressing the attendies. The seminar began with Mrs Ragini Yechury's, WiLAT's chairperson's, address wherein she brought important aspects and practical problems that women face in this still very male-dominated industry. Under the leadership of Mrs. Ragini Yechury, WiLAT aims to promote logistics industry to female members and to encourage and support their career development. WiLAT, a sister organisation of CILT, Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, is one organisation that is working globally on changing the mindsets to involve more woman workforce in the logistics and transport industry through training. 

Mrs. Yechuri honoring Ms. Palli with certificate. "We need to change the mindset of organisations and a little bit pf power shift to include more diversity in the workforce. And, there is need to involve men equally. We need to educate men how to look at their women counterparts too", said Mrs. P Alli Rani, Director (Finance) of Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), one of the largest public sector organisations in container transport and to be the chairperson of WiLAT. "In fact, as women take up ownership and higher positions in the companies, they should have a friendlier attitude for towards the women as women do need little positive reinforcement", she remarked during the panel discussion", she asserted. 

Sunila Yadav, Sunita Nair, Shweta Goela, Mr. Sylvan. What measures are companies taking to increase female participation third party logistics? What steps should we take to break down the gender barriers in logistics at the 3PL? How are women making a difference in 3rd party logistics? Shweta Goela, AGM (Strategy), Safe Express, Sunila Yadav, Managing Director of Anil Mantra Logistix Pvt. Ltd. and Sunita Nair, V.P. (Projects) of Procam took the panel discussion on women in 3PL logistics forward. There is a very congenial environment for women in Safe Express. In fact, my boss is very encouraging and they do want more women to join and be there in decision-making roles. And, as women can think creatively and can multitask, it's advantageous to them as logistics is a very dynamic and offers new challenges that women can handle very well, observed Shweta Goela of Safe Express. Sunila Yadav of Anil Mantra advocated inducting more women at grassroots level and training them thoroughly in operations to enable them to solve bigger problems.

The discussions kept the seminar very vibrant with final panel discussion between Ms. Veni Mathur, Vice Chairperson of CILT India, Ms. Yechury and Ms. P Alli Rani. Participants and attendees came with several solutions to help WiLAT take some important actions. For example , taking proactive measures to implement basic amenities for women at transport terminals and ports, having training sessions for women, sensitisation programs for men, campus outreach programs to educate women about opportunities in logistics sector and awards to recognize contribution of women in logistics sector. Mr. Sanjeeva Shivesh, Founder of The Entrepreneurship School, summed up the discussions and outcomes to end the seminar. The Event was anchored by Ms. Himandhi Lydia Singh, Operations head and co founder of ChemBizAsia, a Petrochemicals Trading Company.