This week on We Women Want, we have Valli Arunachalam, the eldest daughter of former Murugappa Group Executive Chairman M.V. Murugappan.
DEMANDING EQUALITY
A nuclear scientist herself and an expert on semiconductors, Valli has been fighting a legal battle with the family-owned Murugappa group for the right to sit on the board ever since her father passed away in 2017. The request is simple: Valli wants to be treated on par with the other shareholders in the family, who are all male.
QUESTIONING NORMS
If sons can be given a place on the board, then why can’t a daughter, she asks. In the Murugappa family, every family branch has one son except two branches—one branch chose to adopt a son to carry on the inheritance, but the late M.V. Murugappan decided to pass on the entire inheritance to his wife and his two daughters.
GENDER DISCRIMINATION
Valli also tells us that while her claim was shot down unanimously by the board, a 23-year-old and less qualified cousin was given a place, and yes, he is a male. What Valli is asking is that either she be given a place on the board or else her 8.23 % stake should be bought out at a just value.
She is fighting a legal battle on the issue against Ambadi Investments Ltd (AIL), the flagship company of the 38,000-crore Murugappa Group and family members. Her charge is that she is being discriminated against because of her gender.
As a nuclear scientist, she is quite used to holding her own in a world traditionally occupied by men, so she is quite hurt by the discrimination from her own family.
FIGHTING FOR A CAUSE
Moreover, she also sees her fight as one for the larger cause of gender equality in corporate India. According to her, women bring much more to the boardroom as they are better at multitasking and nurturing talent than men. As the show’s host Priya Sahgal, Senior Executive Editor of NewsX, pointed out, these are some of the issues that we are trying to raise through this show, which focuses on women’s issues.
Catch fresh episodes of ‘We Women Want’ every Saturday at 7:30 PM on NewsX. The program will also be streamed live on major OTT platforms: Dailyhunt, Zee5, MX Player, ShemarooMe, Watcho, Mzaalo, Jio TV, Tata Play and PayTm livestreams.
