International Women's Day: The Untold Stories Of 5 Women Who Helped Build Tata Group

Ever since it was founded in the year 1868, Tata group has grown from strength to strength, and become of India's most prestigious business groups. But in its over 150 year journey, there are some women who have played key roles in building the Tata group.

With International Women's Day just around the corner, let us bring to you the untold stories of five women who were a part of Tata group in its early years, and helped build the business empire in their own unique ways and left a significant mark on its history. All five of these women are a part of Tata Luminaries.

The Untold Stories Of 5 Women Who Helped Built Tata Group

1.Lady Meherbai Tata

Lady Meherbai Tata/tata

Lady Meherbai Tata has a prominent place among the pioneers of the women's movement in India. She was born on October 10, 1879 in Bombay (Mumbai).

In 1890, Jamsetji Tata went to Bangalore (Bengaluru) at the invitation of the Dewan of Mysore, Sir Seshadri Iyer, who intended to assist Jamsetji in his scheme for the establishment of a research institute. It is on one of these visits that he came in close contact with the Bhabha family. H.J. Bhabha was then the Inspector-General of Education, Mysore State. Jamsetji seems to have had a hand in the selection of Meherbai the daughter of H.J. Bhabha as his daughter-in-law. The beautiful Meherbai married Dorabji ¨C the elder son of Jamsetji Tata on February 14, 1898.

Meherbai shared Dorabji's love of sport. She played in several tennis tournaments, winning over sixty prizes, including the Triple Crown in the Western India Tennis Tournament. Together they scored many successes in the All-India Championships. She always wore, as foreign reports phrased it, 'Eastern dress' ¨C 'the Saree' ¨C not the easiest of garments in which to play a winning game on the courts! She was also a good rider and drove her own motor car.

Many a woman in such circumstances would have been content to be a great society lady, however, Meherbai Tata was made of different stuff. She was ever urging to utilise her opportunities to promote the education and well-being of her Indian sisters. She was one of the founders, first of the Bombay Presidency Women's Council and then of the National Council of Women. She was consulted on the Sarda Act designed to outlaw child marriage. She campaigned for the higher education for women against the purdah system and the practice of untouchability.

With regard to women's education, she got full support from her husband Sir Dorabji Tata who encouraged her to take over the local school with the object of developing it into a model school. They brought an expert from England to survey the field of girl's education in India. This survey took over a year and the book in which it took form was for many years the vade mecum which the Board of Education in Whitehall placed in the hands of all women inspectors or teachers proceeding to India, to take up higher education of girls.

In 1919, her services to the war efforts and women were recognised when she was created a Commander of the British Empire and received it at the hands of King George V.

Lady Meherbai Tata passed away on June 18, 1931. In April 1932, as a memorial to his wife, Sir Dorabji Tata set up the Lady Tata Memorial Trust for research into leukaemia. A much smaller trust ¡ª the Lady Meherbai D. Tata Education Trust, funded partly from public donations, for the training of women in hygiene, health and social welfare was also set up.

2.Lady Navajbai Tata

Lady Navajbai Tata/tata

Navajbai, the younger daughter of Ardeshir Merwanji Sett was born on September 23, 1877. In the 1890's, Navajbai married Ratan Tata, the second son of Jamsetji Tata. Living part of the time in England, the couple rubbed shoulders with the cream of British society and aristocracy. They were personal friends of King George V and Queen Mary.

In 1906, Ratan Tata purchased "York House" in Twickenham. During his stay he made several alterations to the house, its grounds, including the installation of the large Italianate fountain and statuary which dominates the riverside portion of the garden.

Sir Ratan and Lady Navajbai were connoisseurs of fine art and collected a valuable collection of jade, paintings and other artefacts through their travels around the world.

After the premature death of Sir Ratan in 1918, Lady Navajbai, managed his Estate. She sold "York House" in 1924. For the rest of her life she lived with style, elegance and dignity, at "Tata House", Bombay (Mumbai), which was built by Sir Ratan Tata, on the lines of the summer palace at Versailles.

Her outlook, ideas and benefactions were without consideration of caste, creed or religion. A generous donation by the Sir Ratan Tata Trust to the National Metallurgical Research Institute at Jamshedpur is evidence of her progressive mind and desire to use the funds of the Trust constructively.

In 1928, she played a prominent part in establishing the Sir Ratan Tata Institute, which was intended to discourage charity in the form of doles, and instead provide employment to poor and needy women by training and offering them opportunities for employment.

"Homestead", her manor at Matheran, was willingly parted as a gift to be used as a convalescent home, along with a donation of Rs.3 lakh on one request from a social worker.

As Chairman of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust she invited S.J.I. Markham of the Carnegie Trust to study the problems of the Parsi community and submit a report. As a result, Parsi charities organised themselves to make their charities self-supporting.

She was appointed a Director on the Board of Tata Sons Ltd. in 1924, a position she held right up to her death on August 20, 1965. She is the first woman to be appointed as a Director on the Board of Tata Sons Ltd.

Also Read: Inside Tata Group's 99-Year-Old Headquarters, The Bombay House

3.Behroze Cursetjee

Behroze Cursetjee/tata

In the early 1900s, women were meant to stay in the house, both here and in the West. However, a slim, pint-sized Indian girl, Behroze Cursetjee, thought otherwise.

Behroze Cursetjee was born in Bombay(Mumbai) in 1882, in a middle class Parsi family. In 1890, she visited the new Victoria Terminus Station and the much talked of Esplanade House ¨C the residence of Jamsetji Tata. Behroze Cursetjee's father was a sportsman and a Cambridge Rowing Blue. He was a friend of Jamsetji Tata and his sons. Although Jamsetji died in Germany the year before she joined the organisation, Behroze had vivid recollections of the patriarchal old man with the deep, gruff voice and his snow white beard.

In those days, girls were not taught mathematics or any subject that would have been useful later on. Then came the day when Behroze fell on hard times, she decided to contribute to the household. She began working from home undertaking genteel labour of embroidery and fine sewing. However, one day a phrenologist read her "bumps" and told her she would definitely take to business life, advising her to study shorthand typing. An elderly man and his wife taught her privately.

At the age of 23, Behroze joined Tatas as a stenographer on September 4, 1905. She operated from Dorabji Tata's residence, the Esplanade House. When Behroze Cursetjee joined the Tata group, there was only one other woman employed as a stenographer in the whole firm. She was paid a then quite handsome salary of Rs. 30 per month. When she left Tatas, thirty-eight years later, she was earning a four-figure salary as Secretary of The Tata Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. (TISCO), and the years between tell a remarkable story of employer and employee.

When she first joined Tatas, to make up for her lack of technical education, Behroze had to study in her spare time. One night, things came to a standstill when she flung herself on her bed and wept with despair: "It's no good," she told her sister, "I'll never make a success of my job. I can't learn all these things." However, encouraging words from her sister persuaded her to carry on and she decided not to give up just yet.

How happy she was later when she was made Secretary of TISCO, the largest iron and steel works in the British Empire and the third largest in the world. Little did she imagine in those early years that she would reach such heights!

Behroze Cursetjee retired after completing nearly forty years of a non-stop progressive career with Tatas. She lived a long and eventful life and passed away in 1973. She was nearly 91 years of age.

4.Leela Moolgaokar

Leela Moolgaokar/tata

Leela Moolgaokar was born on October 10, 1916. The wife of Sumant Moolgaokar, former Chairman of The Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co. Ltd. presently known as Tata Motors Ltd., she was a distinguished person in her own right.

Starting as a radiographer at St. George's Hospital, Bombay (Mumbai), Leela Moolgaokar pioneered the voluntary blood transfusion service in India.

She was appointed as the Honorary Organiser for the blood bank scheme of the Government of Maharashtra from 1954 to 1970 and from 1975 till her death. In recognition of her selfless service to this cause, she was appointed by the President as Special Officer on Duty for Blood Transfusion Service of the Directorate General of Health Services, New Delhi, in 1964. This post was upgraded to Assistant Director General for Blood Transfusion Service.

She was instrumental in starting the Federation of Bombay Blood Banks in 1980 with the idea of evolving a uniform code of conduct regarding collection, utilization and benefits to be extended to voluntary blood donors, and to carry out research in blood transfusion.

Leprosy was another area in which she worked ceaselessly. The plight of persons suffering from this disease moved her immensely and she managed through the good offices of the late Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, to repeal the Indian Lepers Act, 1898 in Maharashtra, which restored human dignity to leprosy patients. She was also appointed a Member of the National Leprosy Commission in 1984 for preparing a blue print for eradication of this disease in India. As President of the Society for the Eradication of Leprosy, she visited various hospitals in Bombay dressing and attending to the wounds of leprosy patients.

Leela Moolgaokar was appointed Chairman of the Tata Relief Committee in 1961 at the time of the Panshet Dam disaster. She personally supervised the relief operations during the Koyna earthquake in 1967, the floods in Bihar, the Maharashtra drought in 1972, the tidal wave in Andhra Pradesh in 1977 and the 1992 floods in Raigad district.

During her tenure as the Sheriff of Bombay in 1975-76, she personally looked into the problems of women in jail and ensured that basic amenities were given to them.

She consistently worked for the upliftment of women and children as Chairman of the Central Social Welfare Board, Government of India, and as Chairman of the Bal Varsha Pratishthan.

She was honoured by the Rotary Club of Bombay with the Citizen of Bombay Award in 1986. The Rotary Club conferred this Award in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the promotion of the blood bank movement, and her concern and work for the leprosy-affected and the socially neglected sections of society. She passed away on May 20, 1992, at the age of 76.

5.Piloo Vesugar

Piloo Vesugar/tata

Piloo Vesugar's first choice of a career was education. She was a college teacher for many years, and lectured at Wilson College, Bombay (Mumbai) for a brief period after taking her Master's Degree. She then proceeded to Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, where she distinguished herself and won high praise from her tutors.

Piloo Vesugar returned to India and Wilson College for some time, and after her marriage transferred her activities to Lahore and Delhi. For a short while, she was a college professor in Lahore, and her reputation as a stimulating and unorthodox teacher spread. When she returned to Bombay, she renewed her old association with Wilson College, and played a role in the encouragement of swadeshi goods through the well-known shop "Svadeshi" run by a group of women.

In October 1940, she joined the J.N. Tata Endowment, under the guidance of the late Jehangir H. Bhabha. For twenty-five years she guided the J.N. Tata Endowment. She created an image in the public mind of the Tata Scholar as a person of high intelligence and integrity. She cared for the Tata Scholars as though they were her own children, often giving generously of her own money and time to equip and train them for life and conditions abroad, since many came from simple rural backgrounds.

Besides her work for the Endowment, Pilloo Vesugar was familiar with many aspects of life in Bombay House and her services were always available for good causes; notably for the war effort during the Second World War and for the Mutual Benefit Fund, the staff canteen and the library and reading room of the Tata Sports Club. Many turned to her in their hour of trouble or distress, particularly the poor or lonely; and her numerous acts of kindness to those in difficulty were common knowledge throughout Bombay House.

In all things the principle of beauty made a deep appeal to her, whether it was in art, music, poetry or religion. Piloo Vesugar passed away on April 18, 1965.

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