Indian Social and Political Environment

Assignment

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO INCREASE GENDER DIVERSITY IN THE WORKFORCE?

Submitted toProf. Nayan Chowdhury

OnFebruary 25, 2015

By

Subhraprakash Mondal (Roll No.: 144107)

WHAT CAN BE DONE TO INCREASE GENDER DIVERSITY IN THE WORKFORCE?

You can understand the current situation of women in India by some basic numbers.

As per 2011 census, women population is 48.52% of the total population. Literacy rate for

Indian male (7year+) is 80.89%, but same for the female population is only 64.64%. These

basic numbers indicate that there is a huge gender discrepancy in India. This discrepancy

increases in high school to higher education, which is reflected in female workforce in our

country. Only 30% (approximate) of the total workforce is female in India now a day. As per

my concern, the main reason for less participation of female in workforce is lack of quality

education system, our traditional social structure, less awareness regarding opportunities.

Therefore, to increase gender diversity we need to focus on those areas.

I would like to take following steps to increase gender diversity in workforce:

A. As an individual living in Indian family

In India, parents let their girl children go to school but in many cases after the completion

of school, they do not allow them to go college. This is a primary barrier for female students

to go for a job, as they do not get the proper education to be in a job. Some girls go to higher

study or college level but cannot continue their studies as their parents force them to marry

and after marriage, they have to do the most common job of homemaker. To change this

situation:

1. Promote education for girls: Promotion of higher education and vocational education

can increase the awareness of their capabilities and rights for female student community. I

would like to do some campaigning at high school level in a different place to increase

the awareness. If the girl students once come to know that they can do, and they have

right to do the job, they would be more interested in their studies and career. Promotion

should be done through print media, television ads, social media, and all similar medium.

Let them know about the various fields in which they can do the job, and they can

become self-dependent.

2. Increase awareness: Promotion of education and job opportunities cannot be able to

make female participation in the workforce, they would be facing some negative barrier

from their parents, husband and in laws also. To eliminate this barrier, we need to

increase awareness among them. We need to inform them about the positive and good

side when a female works. We can use the same medium, which are used in promotion of

education.

3. Develop education system and infrastructure: Till now benefit of education system is

not available to all. Rural area is lacking behind on this issue. Sometimes students in the

village area have to go to other places for school and colleges. So it becomes difficult for

the girl to go to school and college in our Indian social context. So we need to think about

developing education infrastructure. Construction of some schools and college will not be

sufficient and helpful alone to increase gender diversity. We need to design our education

system i.e.: subjects and syllabus, in such a way so that education can make them capable

of working in corporate structure.

4. Create jobs for female only: After doing the above things we need to create

opportunities. Practically we would be facing great competition from male dominating

society; it is a threat for the female. To assist them in the competition with other, we

should take care of their opportunities. We can create some post only for female. There

are so many works, which can be done by female more efficiently than the male

candidates can. Make those posts open for women only.

5. Support, motivate and appreciate: Let start this from your home only. I would like

support female of my family to go for a job, and then motivate them to continue in their

way, and it would be my great pleasure to appreciate them for what they have achieved. If

we all start doing these then, it will help to increase gender diversity in Indian workforce.

I would like to respect them for their dedication and whatever they done for a family,

society. Now let them be successful and to shine.

B. As a manager in an MNC:

1. Recruit female employee: As a manager in an MNC I would like to recruit female as a

permanent employee in our organization. To increase gender diversity, I would like to

implement some strict rule in HR policy for hiring a new employee. I would like to make

it compulsory 1:1 ratio for hiring male and female employee from educational institute or

in lateral entry (if sufficient female candidate is available). If I am in the industry like

manufacturing, then it is very difficult to maintain 1:1 ratio. That time I would like to

maximize as per the resource pool available.

2. Involve female employee: I would like to involve our organization’s female employees

in all type of activity. Make them feel free to work in the corporate environment. I would

like to give them some responsibilities other than official work (like organizing some

events within the organization). So that they can feel that they are important and a rich

culture of collaboration can be developed. At the same time, I would take care that those

activities so that their workload be within a certain limit.

3. Support, train, and motivate them: I would like to support all my employees equally

without any gender bias. So I would support them, give them proper training and, after

all, motivate them equally. I would like to do these to avoid any insecure feeling in

female employees. It would be a great step in developing a culture of mutual

understanding and respect in the corporate environment. If our female employees are

happy and satisfied with their job and if they feel the freedom, self-respect then they will

bring new female employees to our workforce just by telling their story and inspiring

others.

4. Protect them from all evil forces against them: As there are so many incidents of

sexual harassment and gender discrepancy in the corporate world, so I would like to

implement a full proof system to avoid those such unwanted happenings. In this issue, I

would like to my female employees to take the leadership so that all the female

employees feel free to share any incident. Once I come to know that stuff I will always

take severe action against those persons who have done that. But it is better to prevent

than cure, so I would like to make all the employees aware of the consequences of doing

any misbehave or harassment with female employees.

5. Reward for achievement: Like all other MNC there may be some reward for

achievement of employees. However, to improve female participation in our workforce I

would like to announce some specific rewards for female employees.

6. CSR activities for development of female in our country: I would like to design some

CSR activities completely dedicated to female empowerment. For their education, health,

safety and all I would keep aside some fund from total CSR budget. This type of activities

will do the same what I would like do as an individual living in Indian family.

Refference: http://censusindia.gov.in/2011census/censusinfodashboard/index.html