Multi-national firms feel partial scrapping of section 377 by the Supreme Court liberates rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community and will push for equality among workforce.
Lauding the apex court judgement, US based firm Salesforce said that the decision is a huge step towards ensuring equality for all in the world's largest democracy.
"At Salesforce, we have always championed the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and fostered a culture where employees are encouraged to bring their whole, authentic selves to work," Shweta Rajpal Kohli, Director - Public Policy & Govt Affairs, Salesforce, India said in a statement.
A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously decriminalised part of the 158-year-old colonial law under Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalises consensual unnatural sex, saying it violated the rights to equality.
The constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra termed the part of Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises consensual unnatural sex as irrational, indefensible and manifestly arbitrary.
The bench also said the other aspects of Section 377 of the IPC dealing with unnatural sex with animals and children remain in force.
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Teamlease said the section 377 has been a challenging issue in India for a while now as Indian culture did look down at LGBT community. However, global acceptance and constant efforts of the community has pushed the judicial system as well as corporate India to have more acceptance and look at various levels of diversity and inclusion.
"Though, most Indian corporate were stuck with many hassles when it came to gender diversity, now the broad aspect of diversity will eventually include regional, linguistic, physical and LGBT inclusion as well. We will see a significant cultural and societal shift which will open new avenues and employment opportunities," Ajay Shah, Head Recruitment Services, TeamLease Services.
Chicago based JLL shared story of their LGBTQ employee who was facing problem in getting job due to stigma and discrimination against transgender in the society and was finally hired by the company.
"We extended our diversity agenda to include transgenders because we believed that was a segment that was perhaps marginalised and disadvantaged in our society through discrimination and abuse. The top management was involved in the selection process and we would like to add that the selection of the candidate was on the basis of her abilities," Ramesh Nair, CEO & Country Head, India, JLL, said.
He said that once the selection process is done at the company, it conducts a few 'sensitising sessions' for the immediate manager and teammates.
"We are very happy with the judgment, however, it is just a step, gender inclusivity requires a lot of hand holding and support and we are happy to make a small difference there through our organisation policies, Nair said.
US-based technology firm Conduent said it embraces individual differences knowing that these differences, when positively leveraged, will create a strong and accepting workforce.
"We believe that our policy of inclusion and diversity creates a more supportive and welcoming ecosystem for all people at our workplaces," Conduent said.
The Royal Bank of Scotland said that it has adopted global standards developed by the UN Human Rights Office.
"...they set out actions companies can take to protect the rights of LGBTI individuals. These include eliminating unfair treatment in the workplace, making sure business operations do not contribute to discrimination against customers, suppliers or members of the public, and working with business partners to address discriminatory practices up and down the supply chain," RBS said.
It said that the standard also encourage companies to stand up for the rights of LGBTI people in the countries where they operate including through advocacy and support for local organisations.
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