SheThePeople.tv: A platform for women to tell their stories of courage

Post graduate degree holder Rohini Shirke from Satara was married to someone who wasn’t even a graduate. Shirke was coaxed to be a homemaker. However, instead of sitting back, she first encouraged her husband to dream big and take a job outside the village and then utilised internet to her advantage. She learnt bee-keeping that was a primary occupation in the village she lived in. However, she had no idea about how to market it. It was through internet that she learnt how to source bottles for safe keeping honey and then selling them to people. The girl now sells natural honey on Amazon as well as takes orders on phone. That is the power of digital where one can be anonymous and at the same time showcase one’s talent to the world by learning from the same channel, says journalist turned entrepreneur, Shaili Chopra, founder, SheThePeople.tv. 

It was the data — “there are 600 million women in India, which is 9 per cent of the global population” — that prompted Chopra to create a space for women to speak. In her 18-year long career spanning business journalism, data was all that Chopra breathed, wrote and read about. And, when the very data showed an imbalance in the number of women voices, Chopra thought it was about time there was a space for all women — be it rural, urban or semi-urban. 

“Till a couple of years back, how many women would you see on the covers of magazines? Or read stories about? Of course, there were stories but all were either of the same lot, or those that had been long heard about,” she says. Thus was born SheThePeople.tv — a digital storytelling platform for women, dedicated to passionately championing and promoting their journeys. With the aim to empower, engage and elevate, as well as connect the women to an amazing network that inspires and grows each other’s efforts, the platform aims to engage with everyday women — from leaders, game changers, board members, executives, sportspersons and more. 

With over 50,000 stories told on the platform, it has been an exhilarating and at the same time an enriching journey for Chopra. “Personally, I felt inspired seeing women who have built their careers while being  young mothers,” says Chopra, adding how important it is to encourage such women all the more to take on the challenge of raising a child as well as aiming high at work. 

It was Chopra’s research on her book, The Big Connect: Politics in the Age of Social Media, that made her realise the importance of how social media is playing a key role in empowering the women of today. “She can be anonymous. She can be under a pseudo name. She can just be herself. She can start her own page. Create her own business,” she adds stressing how internet has offered an answer to the knowledge a woman possesses. 

The website, SheThePeople.tv, is currently bilingual — English and Hindi — and is all set to expand to four more languages — Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, and Marathi. The content for both English as well as Hindi is written anew and not merely translated, says Chopra. She also plans to include more video content on the platform by hosting studio-driven programmes. One example of such content is “Women & the Vote” show, which has been launched with the general elections in mind, where they discuss at length issues that matter to the women in the country. There is also non-branded content on health and hygiene that the founder feels need to be talked about at length. 

Chopra also plans to generate content for women travellers so they can travel in India  and get all the information they need about the country at one place. 

Chopra surely has big plans in the pipeline and with women as her focus, she is hoping to build a community bustling with stories of inspiration, courage and daredevilry.