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Kalpana Chandran (Ana)
Kalpana Chandran, born in 1976, Ipoh Perak (Malaysia), is now settled in Belfast with her family, and founded the Belfast Asian Women’s Academy (2019)
Skip to mediaPart of the South Asian Britain oral history collection
About
Coming from Kerela (India), Kalpana Chandran’s family settled in Malaysia (Ipoh Perak), where she was born and grew up. Kalpana, now mainly known as Ana, developed a passion for athletics and running and competed successfully in these fields. Ana moved to London, exploring Europe and eventually making home in Belfast, where she converted to her husband’s faith, Catholicism, from Hinduism. Part of her experiences include difficulties in securing appropriate work in the legal sector after attaining a legal degree. Alongside her husband, she has also endured exploitative conditions and discriminatory practices in the workplace, sometimes culminating in legal action against employers and tribunals. Ana founded the organization Belfast Asian Women’s Academy (BAWA) in 2019, which in 2022 became a charity.
The full interviews recorded for 'Remaking Britain', for the South Asian Britain: Connecting Histories digital resource, are available at the British Library under collection reference C2047.
Listen to Kalpana/Ana talking about Belfast Asian Women’s Academy, its beginning and growth.
Interview conducted by Maya Parmar, 26 October 2023.
KC: So, in the meantime on Facebook, I started a page called Belfast Asian Women's Association just as a signpost, because I lived here longer, you know, and when I came here in 2000, there wasn’t much Indians down here. You don't see many people of colour down here. So I wanted to connect to people and try to, you know, signpost people what to do and where to do, and so on. So that was just a page that I started off. And after this case, I thought it would be a good idea to have a group of ladies come together, just socializing, you know, doing things that we would not get to do otherwise. So I announced off...there was a WhatsApp group, Belfast WhatsApp group. I went to this group and said, ‘Ladies, I'm launching this group called Belfast Asian Women's Association. Anyone interested to know what I want to do, or, you know, how to be part of this, come and meet me.’ So, four ladies came on the day. And I pitched my idea. I said, ‘Look, I came here to work and to make my life better, but I'm worse off. And what's worse is that there was no help and support.’ So I said, ‘My idea is we do fun stuff, but we also advocate and be the voice for other woman. And we will do a lot of charity work as well, and our charity will focus for the people who are living here so that we can eliminate hatred. You know, people say, look they are contributing as well.’ The girls kind of bought in. They said, 'Yes, Ana, this idea is very good.’ So I said, ‘Let's form a committee. You're going to be the committee for the group.’ So obviously they said, ‘You have to lead, you can be the Chairperson.’ A Secretary was elected, a Treasurer was elected and there was two other members. From six, today we've got 250.
MP: 250?
KC: 250 ladies in that group. And they are ladies from all over. I have got a lady from Mozambique. I have a lady from Maldives...sorry, Mauritius, Singapore, Malaysia. Obviously the majority of them are India, but I have Pakistanis and Bangladesh ladies in the group.
MP: All from Northern Ireland or Belfast, or...?
KC: Yes, Northern Ireland. Well, Belfast, mostly Belfast. But you met Rafait yesterday, and she's not from Belfast, so, you know...so Rafait is a Pakistan woman who's just recently joined, I met her not so long ago. Yeah, so...yeah, and I don't promote BAWA. So, my...our organization now is called Belfast Asian Women's Academy. I changed the name from Association because I said I wanted something like had...because we’re going to...we are going to do a lot of things, so I wanted it to be an academy. So we changed it to Academy, and we call BAWA, B-A-W-A, BAWA. So, BAWA has just grown. Because, as I said, the things that I wanted to do or I'm doing now, is things that was not happening in Northern Ireland. Obviously, now people get inspiration to do what we are doing. You know, you can see other groups are taking the initiative to do things. But we were the people who laid the groundwork. And it's incredibly proud, because women now have a place to come. And BAWA is where we don’t talk about politics within us, you can support whoever you want, you know? And we don't bring in religious element into our group, we just don't do that, because I think these are the two things that divide people.
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