Women-friendly IT firms to get Nasscom award

BANGALORE: IT industry body Nasscom is planning to institute an award to recognize and award IT companies in India that create a conducive environment for women to grow and excel.

Women form around 30 per cent of the IT industry’s work force, which is expected to increase to 45 per cent by 2010.

Nasscom president Kiran Karnik, said, “Today, the IT industry is one of the leading employment generating sectors with 1.3 million employed directly and over 3 million indirectly. While many IT industry players already follow good HR practices, we also see certain examples of extraordinary practices that enable gender empowerment. It is with the objective of recognizing and propagating such practices that Nasscom will constitute an annual award for companies.”

Nasscom is working on the modalities of the award and expects to initiate the awards next year. In his address at the first Nasscom IT women’s leadership summit here today, NR Narayana Murthy, chief mentor and chairman of Infosys board, stressed on the need for greater inclusivity for women in the work place.

He rued that India is still a poor performer when it comes to gender related development on global indices. “India is ranked 98th on the UNDP index out of 150 countries. We are ranked lower than Sri Lanka, Kenya and Algeria. Moreover the ratio of average income of female: male is around 0.38, which is the lowest among BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries.”

Murthy said that Infosys is taking up a lot of women-friendly policies such as creating satellite offices for young mothers and also one-year sabbaticals. He added that in the period between May-September 2006, around 33 per cent of those recruited in Infosys were women.

“But we are still toddlers in this area and have a long way to go,” he said referring to implementing broader policies concerning women empowerment.

Murthy urged the industry to carry out studies on productivity measures exploring flexibility measures that cover not just women but the whole workforce.

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