Kool Kanya: A women-oriented community
In India, roughly three-quarters of employment is non-regular, either self-employed or casual jobs, and most of them have lost their job recently. The coronavirus epidemic has affected women around the globe financially. But, the situation in India is more precarious for them than almost anywhere else. Women are still suffering from a large gender gap in jobs, salaries, and education in India. Vanshika Goenka’s Kool Kanya is a platform designed to create a platform to help Indian women develop careers they enjoy.
In 2019, Kool Kanya (1) was developed by Vanshika Goenka to recognize gender inequality at work. At present, Kool Kanya has crossed over one million, providing women with a safe space for professional networking, exchanging opportunities, sharing thoughts, and asking questions. As the COVID-19 pandemic has generated financial uncertainty and economic difficulties for many, Kool Kanya is a fresh breath of air to help and support women who face job loss and seek support, guidance, and community.
Kool Kanya is a mixture of focused communities for online and offline women that help thousands of women, both emotionally and mentally. This platform’s main goal is to provide women with career advice, mentorship, and opportunities to develop careers that they enjoy and want to pursue. An initiative to help women searching for jobs called GetWork 2020, which is an online recruiting event for the Community, was introduced during this pandemic.
The Founder of Kool Kanya
The CEO & Founder of Kool Kanya is Vanshika Goenka, who wanted to create a women’s online career group where they can be part of an ecosystem of mutual support. She hoped that this platform would enable women to learn from each other and develop in their careers. Vanshika graduated with Magna Cum Laude, Pi Sigma Alpha, and Pi beta Kapha from Brown University-Bachelors in Political Science in 2016. At a tech start-up that worked on developing an augmented reality textile doll, Vanshika began her career. She was working for a sanitary pad company when she discovered the workplace imbalance between men and women. She decided to come up with a product specifically for women to recognize the gender gap at work, and so she created Kool Kanya in 2019.
Trust, a safe place, performance, and guidance are the terms she strongly identifies the platform with. The vision of Vanshika is to create a one-stop destination for everything related to the career of a woman. She wanted to create a forum that women find genuinely helpful. This could also provide them with the required tools, resources, and encouragement to succeed.
In her opinion, as women are increasingly looking to take up freelance and work from home opportunities. Vanshika foresees the platform to expand and support more women in the future. As a role model, Vanshika looks up to her mother and has always sought her guidance and support. Vanshika likes to read autobiographies and biographies, dance, work out. She also loves to unwind with a book and a cup of tea by curling up. She is very excited about travelling, likes to get out of her comfort zone, and enjoys discovering new cultures.
The much-needed guidance
Kool Kanya offers a safe environment where a woman can ask questions, get and give career advice, exchange experiences. You can also find common ground in your field with other female professionals. Anonymously, if so desired by women. The job advice they give ranges from how to network to regular work advice and financial management. It encourages gradual discussions on related issues and focuses on offering advice on matters. The women receive experience in upskilling, freelancing, entrepreneurship, financial planning, and mental health.
Kool Kanya has seen a reach of over 1 million users successfully over the past year and is looking to launch its marketplace soon. The problems that Kool Kanya aims to help address include providing a place to ask questions. It encourages interactions with individuals in similar fields. It also provides them access to resources to help deal with legal and financial aspects, seeking mentors, and seeking collaborative opportunities.
Approximately 5.2 million women are searching for work in India, according to Kool Kanya’s observations. Though more women turn to freelance as a career choice, many of them are uncertain about how to start. They find it difficult to deal with legal and financial complexities, or run an independent company, which is where Kool Kanya comes in. In India, women-based platforms and communities have evolved significantly. They are growing to help women achieve their goals and invoke sisterhood feelings among themselves. From then on, these communities have played a critical role, serving as women’s career support structures. And Kool Kanya is planning to take account of the evolving economic scenarios arising from the pandemic. They aim to help women have greater and easier access to credible resources and initiatives that pay for them.
Initiatives by Kool Kanya
Kool Kanya is on the track to provide a one-stop destination for all things related to the career of a woman. You can gain anything from mentorship and upskilling to starting careers and receiving an opportunity to find jobs. They present a nurturing and mutually supportive environment where women build up with each other. This platform has carried out impressive events and surveys for mentors in the Kool Kanya community. Some of these are the “Women in the Workplace,” celebrating women achievers nominated by other women, and a Gamechangers Networking event.
They have also done a # Unblocked series of events on Business Funding and Development and Networking for freelance authors. Currently, via webinars, masterclasses, interactive boot camps, and recruiting activities, they offer their community members continuous online support. Kool Kanya also curates events for women online and offline that encourage them to network and engage in meaningful dialogue. Through a fully vetted and validated online marketplace, they can also find job opportunities, particularly designed to bring together passionate and skilled women with trustworthy buyers of products and services.
Kool Kanya has also carried out various services during the pandemic and resultant loss of jobs. They dispatched an online occasion property called ‘GetWork’ to assist ladies with looking for some employment. The enterprise later led the second version of ‘GetWork’ and saw more than 200 occupation postings and more than 1500 applications in only four days. It was during the pandemic that they fundamentally developed the network and dispatched a commercial center for autonomous experts. Kool Kanya currently has a powerful network of 100,000 women, and is able to reach over 6 million individuals consistently.
