Reshma Nilofer Naha, is India’s first and only woman Marine Pilot and recepient of the Nari Shakti Puraskar, 2019, the highest civilian Honor for Women in India presented by the Honorable President of India. She works as a Ship Pilot with the Kolkata Port Trust and had an opportunity to attend ‘UNITE’ the yearly conference held by Women Offshore on the 12th and 13th July, 2019. She had been invited to speak at one of the panel discussions about Maritime Pilots. 5 Women Pilots from around the world including Reshma, discussed about this elite profession with Capt. Robert Carr, a San Francisco Bar Pilot as the moderator of the Panel.
Women Offshore is an online organisation that supports a diverse workforce on the water through mentoring, events and online resources. WISTA (India), a part of WISTA International, works to promote diversity in Maritime, Trading and Logistics sectors, empowering women to lead through their unique perspectives and competencies and is a strong believer that achieving Gender diversity is the way forward for the future. Reshma Nilofer Naha, is a member of the WISTA (India), International Women Seafarers Foundation (IWSF) and Company of Master Mariners India (honorary) in addition to the Women Offshore community.
It was felt that the two organisations worked towards achieving a common goal, the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5, ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’ and hence a commitment to work together on the common goals was envisioned. The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Reshma Nilofer Naha on behalf of WISTA (India) and Ms. Ally Cedeno, the Founder of Women Offshore on 13th July 2019 during the course of the UNITE conference held at Rice University, Houston, Texas.
