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Priti Rathi Gupta, Nidhi Choudhari, Chitralekha Patil and Sarita Sonawale Discuss Purpose-Led LeadersHip
(From left) Priti Rathi Gupta, Chitralekha Patil, Shweta Punj, Nidhi Choudhari and Sarita Sonawale Attend the Sheshakti 2025 West Edition in Mumbai, Where they Spoke on Building Trust-Drin, purpose-line ecosystems for change. (Image: News18)
At the regional edition of News18’s SheShakti 2025 in Mumbai, a panel of path-breaking women came together to talk about what power means in today’s world and how women are no longer just fitting into systems but creating their own. Moderated by Shweta Punj, the session titled “Building Trust-Based, Purposeful Leadership Ecosystems” brought together voices from grassroots social work, public policy, entrepreneurship and the arts.
The conversation unfolded as a powerful reminder that women today aren’t just navigating existing systems but are building their own.
Priti Rathi Gupta, the founder of LXME, opened the conversation with a striking insight into women’s relationship with money. “Women are still handing over money to someone else for management or it’s just lying somewhere, maybe as idle savings,” she said. “This, despite the fact that women have historically been money managers.”
Through her fintech platform, Gupta has been working to change this mindset, encouraging women to not just save, but plan. “Set financial goals, create an emergency fund, take health insurance. Seventy percent of middle-income women don’t even have that. Own your future and never depend on anyone for retirement.”
The panel also spotlighted how deep-rooted gender biases continue to affect opportunity, particularly in rural India. Chitralekha Patil, Managing Trustee of CFTI and Director at PNP Group, shared her work distributing bicycles to girls who walk over five kilometres to reach school. She spoke of breaking generational patterns of inequality. “We were conditioned to think differently about girls and boys. But my professor once told me, ‘The brain has no gender.’ That stayed with me. I tell girls to go achieve your dreams.”
From education to healthcare, the challenges are often not just structural, but also social. Sarita Sonawale, a grassroots health worker and Savitri Bai Phule Awardee, highlighted the silence that surrounds breast cancer in rural communities. “There are facilities, but women don’t know they exist—or don’t realise they can access them. Even when they find lumps, they stay silent. I also urge men to understand the fear and hesitation women feel.”
The conversation then turned to public service and balancing ambition with motherhood, as IAS officer and National Gallery of Modern Art Director Nidhi Choudhari shared her journey. “I gave my UPSC exam with C-section stitches,” she said. “When I got my results on my birthday, I knew I had made the right decision.”
Choudhari also reflected on her personal connection to art and how it resurfaced after years of administrative work. “I had stopped painting after joining the services. But when my second child, Adwin, was born—I looked up the name and found that in some African cultures, it means ‘artist’. That was my cue. I picked up the brush again, and since then I’ve held exhibitions in Mumbai and Delhi.”
One theme that echoed across the panel was the refusal to be boxed in—by expectations, circumstances or roles. Whether it was Priti Rathi Gupta calling on women to take ownership of their financial futures, or Nidhi Choudhari describing how she sat for her UPSC exam with post-surgery stitches, each story was a reminder that leadership doesn’t come from comfort. It comes from clarity of purpose.
As Chitralekha Patil recalled, “The brain has no gender” which was a thought that seemed to capture the spirit of the discussion. At SheShakti West, these women didn’t just speak of power but showed how, when women lead with trust and purpose, they build more than careers. They build ecosystems.
Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev…Read More
Shankhyaneel Sarkar is a senior subeditor at News18. He covers international affairs, where he focuses on breaking news to in-depth analyses. He has over five years of experience during which he has covered sev… Read More
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