\'Professional women still face many challenges\'

Following is the full text of the interview:
Question (Q): That you being a woman are heading a large insurance company of the country comes as a surprise to many. Possibly, you do notice surprise in their eyes very often. But should there be any reason to be surprised?
Answer (A): Yes, you are absolutely right that many people are surprised by the fact that a woman is leading an insurance company of Green Delta's stature. It is still perceived that as if the top most position of an organization is solely reserved for a man and if a woman heads an organization, either she does not deserve it or she has been favoured.
But I think that the trend is changing gradually. Female participation has increased significantly over the last couple of decades in every sphere of life. For example, girls' enrolment has gone up by 67% over the past 17 years (Source: World Bank). Female participation in job market also increased manifolds. So, women nowadays are deservingly climbing up the corporate ladders.
Q:   Women are occupying a few top positions in the government. Should it be seen as great progress towards empowerment of womenfolk?
A: In Bangladesh, Prime Minister, Leader of Opposition and Speaker of the Parliament are women. Yes it is a sign that Bangladesh is moving in the right direction in terms of women empowerment.
However more needs to be done before we can realise our dream of empowering every woman in the country as women are still, in general, looked down upon by their male peers in the professional aspects.
Q:   How do you evaluate the current state of Women in Bangladesh? What are the challenges women still facing here?
A: Like I have mentioned before, women participation has seen a significant rise over the past few years, but still they face many challenges while pursuing their professional dream. Some of the challenges are:
a. Majority of the people still think that women are more suited for customer-centric jobs, but not in a position which requires strategic decision making abilities.
b. It is women, who always have to compromise while making a balance between family and work life. For example, after marriage or child birth, women often have to quit the job either for a while or permanently.
c. Most of the employers are reluctant to promote women to the HOD (Head of Department) position, as they presume that women are likely to leave the job after getting married.
Q: Tell us something about your present insurance business operation.
A: Currently we are seeing a consistent 13%-15% growth every year in the insurance industry. The consistency of the growth gives us hope regarding a brighter future of the industry.
However if the growth in the sector reaches 20% every year, that will be remarkable. We are determined to play a vital role in helping this industry reach the desired growth.
The market penetration of insurance is currently less than 1%. With our flagship project 'Insurance For Everyone' and government's recent praiseworthy initiatives related to safety net insurance to give coverage to the bottom of the pyramid group, we are hopeful regarding the possibilities of a 5% market penetration within 5-10 years' timeframe.
Green Delta Insurance holds 13-14% of the market share of the insurance industry being the leader of the non-life insurance sector at the moment. In the decade ahead if our projections work out properly we will be more aggressive in the market and aim to capture the 22-25% of the market share.
But we don't want to grow alone; we want the whole industry and the other insurance companies to grow with us. That will eventually help us materialize our concept- Insurance for Everyone.  
Q: As the top executive of a private insurance company do you face any obstacles or challenges in this male dominated society?
A: My journey towards becoming the First and the youngest female Managing Director of the insurance industry of the country was no walk in the park. I feel I had to work twice as hard as a man to achieve this position. As our society is visibly male dominated, there were a lot of people who tried to pull me down and slow my growth. A large number of people didn't believe I could do it. So it was a big challenge for me to prove my worth to the world. But then again, there were a good number of men who supported me and encouraged me all through my career and made me even more confident. Now it has been almost 3 years after becoming the Managing Director & CEO of Green Delta Insurance, the obstacles are not totally gone but I can clearly see people's acceptance regarding the paradigm shift. The scenario in my office as well as in the industry is slowly changing for the better.
Q: How do you evaluate your success?
A: I believe my works should speak for myself. While working at Brac Bank I developed "Women Entrepreneur Cell" which was the first time in country's banking industry to cater to the Small and Medium Sized Women Entrepreneurs.
At Green Delta Insurance, I launched the first comprehensive insurance scheme for women in Bangladesh named 'Nibedita'. Nibedita gives trauma allowance for distress women covering them from rape, acid violence, road bully etcaprt from conventional accidental and other coverage. I established the Retail and SME department in Green Delta Insurance as a part of 'Insurance for Everyone' concept. GD Health- a comprehensive health insurance with Global Emergency Medical Evacuation Services was another achievement of mine. Niramoy- Micro insurance for rural people was an innovative and timely project in Association with InM which I'm really proud of. A similar product is Shudin which is a micro Insurance scheme for Garments workers. I was invited as a speaker at Bangladesh Garments Industry Conference held at Harvard University, Boston where I spoke about implementing proper insurance policies on RMG sector in Bangladesh.
Probashi, which is a Comprehensive Insurance Scheme for Migrant Workers is also a pioneering product by Green Delta Insurance. The product was introduced keeping the hard working migrant workers in mind who contribute to our GDP greatly by earning remittance for our country so their security is of utmost importance. Another project worth mentioning is Weather Index Based Agriculture Insurance which is partly funded by IFC.
I took the initiative to set up 2 subsidiaries of Green Delta Insurance. One is Professional Advancement Bangladesh Limited, an affiliation of CII (UK) which offers professional courses on Insurance and other financial sectors and the other subsidiary is GD Assist, which is the Official Representative of Malaysia Healthcare Travel Council (MHTC). Through the partnership with Malaysian hospitals we made it possible for local hospitals to build network with them. GD Assist has come up with a holistic approach to provide best healthcare solutions.  
I was instrumental in achieving AAA rating for Green Delta Insurance, which became the first insurance company from Bangladesh to win such prestige (in 2 consecutive years) and also received numerous local and international awards for both Green Delta and myself in past few years. Among them IFM Award for Best Non-life Insurance Company of Bangladesh, SAFA Award for Best Presented Annual Report, ICAB  award for Best Presented Annual Report, World Finance Award for Best Non-Life Insurance Company of Bangladesh, International ARC Award for Best Presented Annual Report, ICSB National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance, World Women Leadership Award were noteworthy.    
Recently we are working with the Health & Welfare Ministry of Bangladesh (Health Economics Unit) for a project titled 'ShashthyaSurakkhaKarmashuchi' (SSK) where Green Delta Insurance is the scheme operator. This is an initiative of Bangladesh Government to bring the Below Poverty Line people of our country under Health Insurance.
Now we are looking into Digital Insurance and working to build a sustainable and ecofriendly environment at our workplace and beyond. More and more initiatives are being taken every day and I leave it up to everyone else to evaluate my success.  
Q: What is your advice for the aspirant women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh?
A: I would like to tell them not to be scared of the obstacles on their way. Everyone wants to be on the top but if you don't face your obstacles you won't grow. It's important to have confidence in yourself. If you look around you'll find many inspiring women around you who chose not to give up and today they are successful entrepreneurs.
But it is also very important that you know what you are capable of. Many young people these days want to be entrepreneurs without legitimate experiences. But to be a successful one you really need to find your set of skills and believe in them. Work hard with passion and innovation and no one can stop you from your desired goal.