Breaking the Glass Ceiling: One Roof at a Time - Kalpana Saroj

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Excerpts

Returning to her village, Kalpana was overjoyed to be back in the familiar world of her family. Her thirst for letters was rekindled. She resolved to complete her schooling and “make something of her life”. But the village ostracized her. The villagers, with their deeply engrained superstitions, blamed her for her failed marriage and concluded that she must have been the home breaker. Conscious of the fact that her parental home was not the place where she could spend the rest of her life, she decided to start earning for herself. She made an attempt to join the police. She also tried her luck at nursing, tailoring, and other odd jobs but only succeeded in antagonizing the villagers further by what they saw as attempts 'to step beyond her social boundaries'.

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Kamani Tubes Limited (KTL) was established in 1959-60 at Kurla, Bombay, by the Kamani Group of Industries for the production of non-ferrous metal tubes and rods. This company, which made brass rods and tubes for use in refrigeration and sugar plants, was a leading firm till the middle of the 1970s, controlling 60 percent of the market in terms of total domestic production of non-ferrous tubes and rods........

In 2002, Kalpana saw the workers of the now defunct KTL dying of poverty and sickness. A few workers of KTL, who had heard of Kalpana’s social work, approached her for help. At that time, the company was a part of the Kamani Group of Industries which included Kamani Metals and Kamani Tubes......

Exhibit I: Timeline of Significant Events in Kalpana Saroj's Entrepreneurial Journey