Indian IT industry should push gender diversity on a larger scale
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Indian IT industry is known for promoting diversity and inclusivity. In a study by Nasscom, the Indian IT sector has added more than 10 lakh women employees in the last decade. In 2012-13, the tech sector employed around nine lakh women, which was 30 per cent of the 20 lakh constituting directly employed women. This number jumped to more than 20 lakh, contributing to around 36 per cent of the entire workforce of 50.3 lakh in the industry in 2023. This shows that the Indian IT industry has emerged as top employers for women in the country. However, a recent survey pointed out that five of the country’s leading IT services companies – Infosys, TCS, Wipro, LTI Mindtree and HCL Tech – have witnessed a cumulative net exit of 25,000 women in the one year ending March 2024. This has raised concerns over the diversity drive of the sector. Post-pandemic, IT firms had hired a record number of employees in order to meet the surge in demand. However, as the demand environment became tepid, many of them halted fresh recruitments in the last financial year.
The top six firms reported a fall in their headcount by 72,063 in the last financial year. However, HCL Tech is the only firm, whose headcount increased to 1,537 employees. Such a fall in headcount led to a reduction in women employees. Another possible reason for the reduction in the headcount of women employees is the ‘return to office’ policy of several IT firms. During the pandemic and post-pandemic, many IT firms continued to follow the remote working model. This flexibility gave women the opportunity to work from home and thereby space to discharge their responsibilities at home. It’s a known fact that Indian society puts undue burden on women in terms of managing the homes. The remote working model gives flexibility to women for discharging their social responsibilities like taking care of children and elderly among others.
However, starting from last year, most firms have again asked their employees to operate from offices. While some IT companies have asked their employees to work for at least three days a week, companies like TCS have asked their staffers to operate on all five days. It is ditto with most small IT firms in the country. This lack of flexibility has led to a situation wherein many women employees have quit their jobs. Another interesting factor is also playing out in this direction-many staffers in the mid and senior-levels are leaving their jobs in order to pursue their passions. Some are taking up jobs as consultants, while many are taking up roles as independent directors. Quite a few are turning entrepreneurs. As these personalities are well-paid, they can take the risk of branching out. On the whole, the Indian IT industry is pursuing the gender diversity theme in a big way but they have to come up with specific policy norms to make it more attractive for women staffers.
