NASSCOM looks at role of women in IT-BPO industry

NEW DELHI, INDIA:NASSCOM, the voice of Indian IT software and services industry, today shared the key findings of the study on gender inclusivity titled ‘Gender Inclusivity in India: Building an empowered organization’.

The objective is to propose a multi-dimensional framework involving an ecosystem encompassing key stakeholders including individuals, society, the organization and the government to achieve increased levels of integration and benefits for women, said a press release. This paper attempts to understand the current status of female empowerment in the country and calls for action from the stakeholders.

Today, India has more working women than any other country in the world. Of the entire workforce of 400 million, 30-35 per cent are women, and of these, only 20 percent work in urban India. 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, says the study.

In mid '80s, 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 the entrants into institutions of higher education were women. Women in IT workforce grew from 421,460 in 2006 to 670,984 in 2008, it said.

“The Indian IT-BPO industry has set high standard in gender inclusivity. Women are a key and vital part of our workforce, and their participation in the workforce is seen as a critical enabling factor for continued growth of the industry,” said Sangeeta Gupta, VP, NASSCOM, who spoke on the occasion of the launch of the study report.

Recognizing the growing influence of this emerging workforce, the IT-BPO industry is gearing up to act as a catalyst in the development of gender inclusive workforce, she added. “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 organization.”

Padma R Ravichandar, country head, Mercer Consulting said, gender inclusivity is not about a set of simple initiatives that corporations need to undertake to increase the female population within their organization 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. This study is a landmark step in that direction,” she observed.

She added that organizations that want to build a diverse culture must look closely at their current management practices, not just within the boardroom, but across the entire organization.

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, the study said. 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.

We must change our perception if we are to truly integrate women into the workforce in India. And to be able to do so, we need a deeper understanding of the issues linked to their causality, it added.

This study, conducted in collaboration with Mercer Consulting, is part of NASSCOM’s ongoing gender inclusivity initiative.

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