Shikha Mittal, like most starry-eyed newly minted graduates, was tossed into corporate life without any clue about how to handle her new money, how to assert her rights to a safe workplace, or any of the skills required to navigate the adult world. Alas, even her senior coworkers could not guide her, as they were equally clueless. There was just no social awareness in the workplace. So she founded Be.artsy in 2010 and created a viable business out of awareness programs aimed at the corporate world.

To start with, she wanted nobody else to suffer sexual harassment and have it waved off as a petty nuisance.On the way, she learned how to fail at entrepreneurship before succeeding, which prompted her to learn about money. Safety at work led to safety on the roads. She also found time to add a diploma in Entrepreneurial Studies from IIMB to her BA from Delhi University and PG Diploma in Mass Communications.

Having become India’s premier awareness expert, she has won recognition in the form of IIM Bangalore’s Alumni Achiever Award in 2019-20 for the impact category ‘Social’ and is one of 20 women featured as a trailblazer in the Forbes India W-Power Trailblazers List 2019. She is called to radio and TV as a panel expert on preventing sexual harassment and financial literacy.

Now, her dream is that no future Shikha, Muhammad or Leslie in India should be dumped into working life without proper awareness on how to safeguard their money, rights, and wellbeing.