This is a story of a business that began out of a very basic unanswered need that most women face at some point in their life- the need to be a good worker, wife and mother at the same time. Each of these roles is hard enough on their own when they get combined it can often take its toll on the individual. Gharkamai is a business developed for women by women.

“Gharkamai.com is a portal that we wished we had had around when we were starting our marriages” says Maneesha Sarin one of the co founders “it would have made the first year of marriage easier.” Sarin left her career at KPMG to relocate with her husband, who has moved twice in the last year.

Kachina Chawla the other cofounder of Gharkamai, gave up her business development career once she got married. “I moved from my job being my life, living in hotels for 20 days a month, to my home being my life… even though it was 100 percent my decision the change really damaged my perceived self worth. It was as if I could either be a good professional the way I knew it or I could be a good wife. I couldn’t do both.”

Eventually both women realized that using their professional experiences they can do project based work. They used their personal networks to find projects in HR, Publishing, and Sales and Marketing and even Event Management. “The more we talked to employers about projects the more we realized there is the need for a formal space where employers can tap into individual women like us for specific projects.”

Gharkamai’s goal is simple- to redefine the working woman. We intend to do this by showing employers that with small changes in working style, such as working with projects and deadlines instead of 9-5’s and enabling remote office work instead of onsite face time, you can get high caliber work at lower costs.

Several industries across India, like journalism and publishing, have always used this ‘freelancing’ approach, though always through word of mouth. Gharkamai.com provides a platform where employers from all industries and women of all ages and backgrounds can access one another for project based work.

So whether you are a PhD student, an expecting mother, or a retired IAS officer you don’t have to give up your individual identity as a competent professional you can simply move to doing project based work through Gharkamai.com.