India has more working women than any other country in the world today. Of the entire workforce of around 400 million, 30-35 per cent are female. Of these, around 20 per cent work in urban India and this figure can largely be attributed to the growth of the IT-BPO industry, which is one of the largest recruiters of a qualified workforce in recent times.
Things are improving though. In the mid-eighties, for instance, only 5-8 per cent of students in engineering colleges and approximately 5-30 per cent of the population entering the IT industry were women. By 2005, 40.4 per cent of entrants into institutions of higher education were women. And women in the IT workforce grew 60 per cent in just two years — from 421,460 in 2006 to 670,984 in 2008.
However, despite the number of political and industrial forums, mandated government policies and widespread discussion in the media, the issue of gender inclusivity continues to remain largely unresolved, argues software body Nasscom. Often regarded as a woman’s problem, this issue will remain unresolved if we as individuals, society and the nation as a whole do not acknowledge that this is everyone’s problem, opines Nasscom.
Recognising the growing influence of the emerging women workforce, the IT-BPO industry is gearing up to act as a catalyst in the development of a gender inclusive workforce, and Nasscom has launched a study along with Mercer Consulting to understand how to promote this cause further.
“We must change our perception if we are to truly integrate women into our Indian workforce. To be able to do so, we need a deeper understanding of the issues linked to their causality. We are confident that this study will help the industry understand and assess where it is today in its gender inclusivity journey to build a more empowered organisation,” said Sangeeta Gupta, VP, Nasscom.
Padma R Ravichandar, Country Head, Mercer Consulting explained that “gender inclusivity is not about a set of simple initiatives that corporations need to undertake to increase the female population within their organisation or policies to ensure women have a harassment-free and secure work environment. It is a far more complex multi-dimensional, transformation journey, with multiple stakeholders that must work together in order to help create a holistic and empowered society where men and women have different but equal roles to play.”
