Empowering young dreams

For Girl Power Talk's Rachita Sharma, feminism means equity., She believes in celebrating gender diversity by offering real opportunities to uplift women, writes Smitha Murthy

Rachita Sharma

Rachita Sharma describes herself as a rebel in the family, the questioning child who thought that life was unfair even then. During her 8th Grade exams, Rachita even dropped her surname during the board exams, not wanting to benefit from the privilege that came with an upper-caste name.

Born in Mathura, UP, Rachita, the co-founder of Girl Power Talk, exudes fierce energy. She is all fire and brimstone, an ardent feminist championing a community of young individuals in Girl Power Talk, providing them with a unique voice and power to change the world. “Ever since my college days, I had always wanted to do something for women or manoeuvre a cause such as shedding light on women who are survivors of rape or prostitution, and people who are mistreated or forsaken by society.”

Girl Power Talk was the result. “Girl Power Talk was a fire inside me for change, for providing opportunities to those who don’t have them, and for finding the equality that was missing in the world around me,” Rachita explains. The organisation operates as a for-profit movement supporting financial independence, especially for women, and working toward gender equality and social good. It was founded on the idea that India needs a new work culture that fosters true inclusivity, regardless of gender.

“We are a purpose-driven organisation that empowers the youth, regardless of age, gender, and race. We believe that by providing opportunities to individuals, we give them room to grow, allowing them to extend their capabilities and expound their skills. From a business standpoint, we collaborate with our sister company, Blue Ocean Global Technology, to provide digital branding, community management, online reputation management, crisis monitoring, and digital marketing services to clients,” Rachita says.

The young leaders at Girl Power Talk get opportunities to work with international clients and work on real projects in the fields of content creation, SEO, web development, and more. Girl Power Talk also uses the power of social media to spread awareness with their ‘People We Admire’ Series regularly featuring stories from inspirational people.

Rachita emphasises that the work at Girl Power Talk is not focused solely on earning profits but more on providing opportunities to team members, enabling them to be changemakers. “Gender inequality is a global problem, and global problems require comprehensive solutions,” she adds.

From a small team, Girl Power Talk is now spread across 17 countries with fellowship programmes and employment opportunities in countries such as Nepal, Vietnam, Kenya, Brazil, Canada, and Malaysia.

Social impact is a key focus area of the organisation. But there’s one other thing that Rachita is particularly proud of. And it’s witnessing Girl Power Talk’s young leaders, as she calls them, transform into confident individuals. The organisation relies on a mentorship model, and its entire work culture is based on the energy of youth, changing the common notions of what constitutes a workplace. “We specifically chose to invest in women in tech to bridge the gap and undo the years of oppression. We possess a feminist bias towards hiring and empowering women to be leaders. While there may be a diverse set of talented individuals, opportunities afforded to men aren’t readily available to women and other genders.”

Women leaders are encouraged to cultivate their skills in coding, UI/UX design, SEO, data science, and AI, along with learning to lead with empathy and compassion.

The company’s website tagline states that “One girl empowers another,” and Girl Power Talk is fiercely working to make that true at all levels.

And so is Rachita’s vision of making the world a better place for the next generation of women.

“There are so many layers of oppression in our society with sex, gender, sexual orientation, caste, class, race, and many other stratifications which overlap to form systems of double, triple, and further forms of oppression. So, to build a better world, I believe in intersectional feminism. Only when we recognise these different issues which all coincide and unpeel them layer by layer, can we truly build an equitable world," she believes.