Press Release
Ahead of Women’s Day, a colloquium on the topic ‘Rajasthan Revealed through Women’s Perspective’ was organised by the Federation of Hospitality and Tourism of Rajasthan (FHTR) at Hotel Hilton. In this discussion, women from different backgrounds shared their views on the hospitality sector of Rajasthan. The panel speakers included lawyer and Director of Rajasthan Tours, Aditi Singh; Artist, Rohini Singh; Chartered Accountant and Director of Pachar Group of Hotels, Radhika Chauhan; Consulting Psychologist and Founder of Raahat Counselling Services, Ana Khan and Partner, V.S. Shekhawat & Associates, Chartered Accountants, CA Chitrangada Shekhawat. The programme was moderated by Joint Secretary of FHTR, Tarun Bansal.
The discussion at the colloquium began with lawyer and Director of Rajasthan Tours, Aditi Singh talking about the challenges faced by women in the hospitality and tourism industry like the gender ratio of employability, deep rooted orthodoxy and gender disparity. She also emphasised that women are capable of leading various fields by giving examples of the leaders like Droupadi Murmu, Vasundhara Raje, Diya Kumari and Gayatri Rathore.
Artist, Rohini Singh talked about the financial independence of women and their encouragement in male dominant areas of art work like finishing and printing. One of the panel speakers, Chartered Accountant and Director of Pachar Group of Hotels, Radhika Chauhan spoke about how women were the mainstream artists from the beginning when it came to making a traditional livelihood with their artforms and skills. She said that in the current time, the major challenges faced by these women artists are the capital requirements and marketing their art and crafts.
Consulting Psychologist and Founder of Raahat Counselling Services, Ana Khan emphasised the need to start a conversation around mental health in the sector, especially in tier 2 cities. Organising workshops on stress management, mental health, anxiety management is the need of the hour. Partner, V.S. Shekhawat & Associates, Chartered Accountants, CA Chitrangada Shekhawat said that females themselves have to make an effort to increase their financial literacy and take a more proactive approach. She further said that gender pay parity is very low in India across industries and organisations have to commit to eradicate it.
Also present on the occasion were President Honour of FHTR, Bhim Singh; Sr Vice President of FHTR, Surendra Singh Shahpura; Vice President of FHTR, Khalid Khan; Vice President of FHTR, Rajendra Singh Pachar; Secretary General of FHTR, Virendra Singh Shekhawat and President of Rajasthan Association of Tour Operators (RATO), Mahendra Singh Rathore.