Corporate women climb the fitness ladder

Women descended the staircases of their corporate offices, including pharma companies, fast food chains and banks, to chip in to make the DNA I Can Women’s Marathon a grand success, apart from promoting the cause of creating awareness about the girl child’s education, safety of women in public places and cervical cancer.

Kalyan resident Meghana Ahire, an employee of the Punjab and Maharashtra Co-operative Bank Limited who participated in the marathhon along with nearly 60 of her colleagues, said, “This will help create awareness about cervical cancer… annual health checkups for women are necessary.” Another employee, Suman Lulla seconded her, saying, “We are here to support women’s causes.” The group could be identified by their yellow T-shirts with the bank name and logo on them. Admitting that “our organisation inspired us to join”, her colleague Parminder Kaur said she empathised with all the causes the marathon stood for.

Of the 32 women from Axis Bank who ran the Half-Marathon, two, namely deputy vice-president (distribution) Devyani Baidya and Vandana Kavishkar (retail banking) made it. Five other officers successfully ran the 10-km Spirit Run, while the rest ran the 5-km Fun Run. With a woman (Shikha Sharma) as its managing director, the bank was proud to send their strong workforce for India’s first women’s marathon.

A drug company, MSD, also sent 40 women employees to take part in the Half-Marathon. One of the runners from the company, Sapna, who participated in the Fun Run, said, “As a part of a pharma company, we all are supporting cervical cancer cause.”

Shraddha Gupta who participated along with her colleagues from a popular fast-food chain, said apart from the “adventure” involved in taking part in a marathon for the first time, she was pitching in for education of the girl child. A group of around 80 women distributors, employees, sales force and managers from Tupperware also participated.