10 min before the interview I get a notification on my Zoom account. Miraiben has already joined the call. Leadership at its best. Despite her seniority she makes no one wait for her, and is punctual.
I have no idea what to expect as we kick off, but her smile and laughter on the video call create such an intimate environment, I immediately get carried away to her world.
Miraiben is the Chairperson of the Sewa Co-operative Foundation, and took over from Elaben who founded SEWA. She recalls her decision to join SEWA despite all her high flying job offers, and reflects.. "I never regretted it, not for one minute!"
I picked 5 of my favourite nuggets based off her journey in SEWA for about 4 decades.
1. Learn by doing
Miraiben vividly recalls a story of how she found one of her younger team members sitting in the SEWA office late at night behind a computer. She was like, "Don't sit behind the screen all day, go out into the field if you want to learn"
Miraiben had the priviledge of a Harvard undergraduate education, and specialized her Public Health knowledge at John Hopkins for her postgraduate degree. The ability to link her education to what was happening on the ground was eye opening. Her experiences on the ground, working with locals complemented her formal education in ways she never imagined. You can only learn so much from a text book, and experiences shape your learning in ways you can never imagine.
2. Mobilization
On one of her very early community visits, she recalls a mother accidentally giving her child an overdose of some medication in a remote village. It was an emergency, and the child only had a few hours to get help in order to survive. The grandmother, in despair, had given up cause they were living in abject poverty and was waiting for the worst to happen! The SEWA team encouraged the women to mobilize resources giving whatever they could and asking the neighboring community members to contribute and they gathered enough money for them to take their child to hospital. The child survived, alive and well, they still visit her to date. A beautiful reminder of the power of community.
3. Be authentic to oneself
Miraiben was chosen to take over from Elaben, something she did not expect. Elaben was a phenomenal leader and inspiring leader who managed to inspire women to create this forum where women could economically empower themselves. Miraiben, owned her leadership journey, managing expectations that she was different and would do her best to lead the best way she could.
4. Pay it forward
Miraiben learnt a lot of the lessons she did from her SEWA sisters. There was always someone guiding her, sharing knowledge that they had and had a very open attitude towards it. They have this philosophy of if I am leading, there is always someone I am grooming to take my place. "I had the text book knowledge, I had the technical experience, but the SEWA sisters taught me about life."
5. Quality time with loved ones
Leading SEWA was very engaging, and Miraiben was a young mother at the time with daughters. Her plea to younger ones was to spend as much time as they can with their loved ones. She has a beautiful relationship with her daughters, but always wishes she could have done more, even though they enjoyed her parenting and felt loved every step of the way.