Priyanka Chopra:
Oh, good afternoon everyone. I’m gonna just keep it
here. Good afternoon, everybody. This is Ava. She’s 16 years old (applause). An
age where girls should be enjoying their innocence and joys of their youth, but
she at such a tender age understands the importance of being the voice for her
peers and advocate for young girls and women around who may not have the
opportunities that us sitting over here have. So, receiving this honor from a
hero like her makes this so much more exceptional, so, thank you. (applause)
Good afternoon, and thank you and wow I’m so
privileged and so honoured to be sharing this afternoon with all of you and
these incredibly amazing women that are being honoured today. I’d like to
extend my congratulation to each one of you, Octavia, Michelle, Kelly, Patty
and all fifty women that have been included in the impact report. Your
achievements not just inspire me, but also so many others to work harder, to be
better, and to make a dent wherever we can. So, I am very very proud to be
alongside of you.
So, in life, you know, there are moments when you stop
and ask yourself “How did I get here?”, like “Why am I standing here?” This is
definitely one of those moments for me. And I find myself going back to the
beginning. Back to my roots, I was born to incredible parents, amazing parents
who served as doctors in the Indian Army, I was the first born. And as far back
as I can remember, I made my parents very proud and happy 99% percent of the
time. Okay, slight exaggerations of personal achievements are allowed from time
to time, don’t you think?
My brother was born a few years later and even then
nothing changed for me. We were both given equal opportunities and I want to
emphasize this, I want to really emphasize this for you because I don’t think a
lot of people might understand that being equal might seem very normal. But
where I come from, India, and a lot of developing countries around the world
more often that not this is an exception. It’s actually a privilege. My first
experience of glaring disparity between boys and girls came at a very very
young age. I grew up in a middle class family with extremely philanthropic
family who constantly reminded me and my brother how lucky we were and how
giving back to those who were less fortunate was not a choice. It was a way of
life. Simple. I was seven or eight years old when my parents start taking me on
these visits in a travelling clinic to developing communities around and
villages around the city that we lived in called Verrilli. We were packed into
this ambulance and my parents would provide free medical care to people who
couldn’t afford it. My job at the age of eight was assistant pharmacist. So, I would
count all the medicines, put them in envelopes and give it out to patients and
I really took my job very seriously, very seriously. But the more I went to
these expeditions, the more I began to notice the simplest things that
distinguished a boy from a girl or a man from a woman.
For example, girls were pulled out of school when they
hit puberty because they were considered ready for marriages and babies. That’s
12 and 13 while boys still enjoyed their childhood. Or basic human rights such
as health care were denied just because they were women. Let this, let’s call
this whole experience trigger number one for me. Fast forward a few years, and
many many triggers in between, like a producer-director for example. Early on in my career, I must
have been about 18 or 19 telling me that if I didn’t agree to the ridiculous
terms or painfully low salary in his movie, that he would just replace me.
Because girls are replaceable in the entertainment business, that was a memorable
one made me decide to make myself irreplaceable. But I think what really moved
the needle for me and ultimately led me to create the Priyanka Chopra
Foundation for health and education and around the same time partner with
UNICEF was an encounter with my housekeeper’s daughter.
About 12 years ago, I came home from set early one day
and she was sitting in my library reading a book. And she must have been eight
or nine years old and I knew she loved reading. So I asked her, I was like this
is, I mean “It’s a weekday, why aren’t you in school?” And she said “Oh I don’t
go to school anymore.” So, I went and asked her mother and I said, you know
“Why isn’t she in school?” And her mom said that her family couldn’t afford to
send her and her brothers to school. So they chose the boys. The reason she
would eventually get married, and it would be a waste of money. I was
completely blown, and it shook me to my core. Eventually I decided to cover the
cost of her education so that she could continue to learn. Because education is
a basic human right. And a huge necessity, especially today. From that point
on, I was determined to make a difference and as many children’s lives as I
could and whatever big pr small way that I could contribute. There is a really
really beautiful quote that I read recently and I think it’s absolutely
appropriate to say, to explain what I’m trying to say today.
“The hands that rocks the cradle, the pro creator, the
mother of tomorrow, a woman shapes the destiny of civilization such is the tragic
irony of fate, that a beautiful creation such as a girl child is today one of
the gravest concerns facing humanity.” Girls have the power to change the
world. It is a fact and yet today girls are more likely than boys never to set
foot in a classroom despite of all the efforts and progress made over the last
two decades. More than, I’m just giving you a stat, more than 15 million girls
of primary school age will never learn how to read and write, compared to 10
million boys. Primary school, is the beginning of our future. Over the last 11
years, I have witnessed firsthand the incredible work that UNICEF does for
children around the world, especially victims or survivors of child marriage,
displacement, war, sexual violence. But there is still so much work to do. And
for me, that is the fuel to my fire. The reason why I’m so committed in this
cause and that is where my passions stems from. Because I know that a girl’s
education not just empowers families, but communities, and economies. A result
of her education, we all do better. It’s just as simple as that.
As entertainers and influencers, sitting in this room,
I feel that it’s our social responsibility to be a voice for the voiceless
which is why I applaud each and every woman in this room for being such a
badass (applause). For using your platform and you voice to contribute to
change and for ensuring that there is not even one lost generation as long as
we are alive.
I’d like to thank to Variety and all of you for
encouraging me and all of us in this room to keep going and fighting on. Thank
you so much.
Transcribed by Adinda Prasty Ascalonicawati
Oct 16, 2018
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