Says SL Vaya, who heads a women’s team at the Forensic Science Laboratory in Gandhinagar.
At first glance, Shivaratna Lalit Vaya comes across as an affable and mild-mannered lady, with a disarming smile and an extremely non-judgmental demeanour.
It's hard to imagine that this woman makes even the most hardened of criminals and terrorists pour their hearts out to her, but that is exactly what she does.
Fifty-seven-year-old SL Vaya, director of Forensic Psychology at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in Gandhinagar has cracked some of the toughest criminal cases in the country for the past 26 years.
Vaya's day ranges from challenging to life-threatening and dangerous as she tries to analyse the psychology of criminals to determine whether the allegations made against them are correct or not. If what her colleagues have to say about her is anything to go by, she has nerves of steel that unnerve the criminals, but not her.
In an interview with DNA, Vaya talks about being a successful woman in a man's world. Excerpts:
The first - your name
"Women need to be known by their own identity," says Vaya, explaining how she had to take up her husband's name to make her life a little easier for formalities like filling forms while applying for maternity leave.
"People know me as Dr Vaya, but no one knows me by my name… Only people back home do" says the Mysore-native, who goes by her initials SL since she moved to Gujarat three decades ago.
"Once you put Mrs in front of your name, you are missed forever," she says jokingly. Dr Vaya has four sisters and she is the only one to tie the knot. She also has four brothers. "(My sisters) didn't marry by choice," she adds, explaining how she had a love marriage with a Rajasthani and is mother to a daughter and son.
Laws need to change the little things
"I couldn't get a hysterectomy done without my husband's signature. It's my health, so the decision should be mine, not my father's, husband's, or kids'," she asserts, explaining how she felt so strongly about the issue and how she had to go to Mysore to get the surgery done by her sister.
"I just felt my body was humiliated. My right to decide my pains and pleasures lies upon somebody else's discretion. I would have rather died than be deprived of my dignity," said Vaya.
In order for change to come, you need self-respect and only at that point can people start taking you seriously, she advocates.
Lead by example
Being at the top of the corporate ladder has not been too contentious with regards to gender discrimination, but a successful leader has to lead by example.
"If you tell your employees to come at 10:30am, you have to be there at 10:30 am," says Vaya, whose work ethic to leave no reports pending by the end of the day is also echoed by her staff.
Vaya, who leads an all-women team, says women have higher tolerance levels and can deal with stress for longer periods of time than men who seem to snap under pressure.
However, she is mindful that men are also an important factor for women to shatter the glass ceiling. "You need the silence of men at the right places. They are not proactive in the right places, but the wrong places," she says.
"The change has to start from here," she explains, pointing towards her head.
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