Mother of all trends: 3 young mothers join PGPX at IIM-Ahmedabad

AHMEDABAD: In 2020, Komal Agarwal, 29, a resident of Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh, was over the moon when she finally got into IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to pursue the coveted PGPX, a one-year executive MBA for professionals for the academic year 2021. The very next day, she found out that she was pregnant.
After deferring her admission by one year, the new mother has arrived at the IIM-A campus to fulfil her dream a fortnight ago entrusting her son with her in-laws. "Getting MBA from a premier institute was always on my wishlist. But after I finished engineering course from DAIICT, I got placed at Morgan Stanley and later marriage deferred the plans. When I got into IIMA, with my family's support, I made the tough call of leaving my 11-month toddler home and chasing my dream," says Agarwal.
Sakshi Chadha with her kids
Out of the batch of 140 PGPX students this year, there are 31 women. Of these, three are young mothers who are balancing their new motherhood with management fundas. According to IIM-A officials, this is perhaps the highest number of young moms who have toddlers below 2 years of age, on the campus.
Out of the batch of 140 PGPX students this year, there are 31 women
"Do I get worried? All the time! It's just a fortnight, and I'll try to keep video-calling home and check on him – as I fear that he might forget my face!" says Agarwal. "But my family is very supportive, helping me put him on track – right from formula milk to sleeping with grandma. It's for the realization of my dream and betterment of his future that I've taken the studies – I want to either work towards a CTO position in a tech startup or start something on my own," adds Agarwal.
For Sakshi Chadha, 33, admission into IIMA was a dream come true after six years. "My husband got into the same course in 2016. I was with him during that time and had fallen in love with the campus. Thus, it's kind of homecoming for me – but this time, the roles have been switched. My husband stays with my one-and-a-half-year-old son for now," she says.
Right from preparations to interviews, she was with the child – before or after the birth. "I would bend around my schedule around the baby's timings – but it was the desire to study further that kept me going. I have studied digital marketing and have worked for a long in the industry. After PGPX, I want to broaden my horizons into marketing profiles," Chadha added.
The mothers agreed that Covid was a turning point for them to make pragmatic decisions over what they wanted to achieve in their personal and professional lives. Chadha said that the first lockdown gave her the time and energy to prepare for the GMAT to get into the premier B-school.
Prof Vishwanath Pingali, chairperson of MBA-PGPX at IIM-A, said that the course has over the years seen family members including spouses and siblings attending it in the same year or apart. "The Institute provides family-friendly facilities to support the students and therefore the experience has always been enriching," he said.
Pingali said that the pandemic has prompted people, irrespective of gender, to think about their careers plans and the significance of re-skilling themselves to fast track their careers. "Informal conversations have also suggested that women's careers are now equally looked at as an equal contribution to secure family income. However, no specific data is available to confirm this point," he added.
The eclectic batch this year has twins Saumya and Shruti Mohil, 28, also as students. The PGPX officials said that right from a defense professional to startup entrepreneur and a farmer's son to architect, there's a lot of diversity in the batch.