Shreya Krishnan, Managing Director of AnitaB.org India, brings an interesting perspective on the debate of merit versus diversity in workplaces in India. “Imagine expecting every football player to excel wearing the same size shoes. It’s not a fair benchmark or comparison,” she says.
According to Krishnan, fairness and meritocracy can come in a world where pay parity is not questionable, where people are not rejected based on gender, and where people with disabilities are accepted for their capacity and capability, not because of the way they appear.
Krishnan also highlights casteism and religious biases and states that it is tricky to apply global constructs of DEI in localised settings. We need to let go of colonial hangovers and build a language of inclusion that is India-specific,” she says.
Between April 2018 and December 2023, Rs 27 crore has been collected as fines from companies for not appointing at least one woman director to their boards. Data from the Ministry of Corporate Affairs show that 507 companies have been fined in that period, close to 90 percent of which are listed entities. Despite regulatory efforts like the Companies Act, 2013, which mandates the inclusion of women directors in boardrooms, significant gaps in outreach and awareness persist, as highlighted by a LinkedIn report.
Meritocracy and its challenges
Similarly, Abhishek Ghosh, co-founder of Qonnect, a LGBTQIA networking platform points out that true inclusivity requires moving beyond superficial measures and addressing deeper systemic issues in hiring practices, such as the narrow focus on elite institutions. “Many of the advertised positions are limited to applicants from IIT or IIM with product management backgrounds. While a few companies may claim to be queer-friendly, their efforts are often superficial. If they are not actively supporting NGOs to upskill the workforce or looking beyond the top-tier gay individuals from IIT and IIMs, they are not doing anything truly meaningful,” he says.
“People who fit the job description are already privileged, and companies are simply avoiding active discrimination. They are not going beyond the obvious of hiring people they would hire anyway,” he adds.
Harish Iyer, Senior VP, Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Axis Bank who is also a person with disability, finds the idea of merit to be very flawed. “The question of merit for a Dalit queer Adivasi trans man who is also disabled doesn’t arrive at all. You need to take affirmative action at every step. If you were to give one point for every diversity the person falls into, and then you speak about merit, you can speak about merit only when people begin on equal ground.”
Iyer also shares his personal story, saying he wouldn’t have joined Axis Bank if it solely depended on “merit”. “I am a 12th second attempt pass, MBA fail, and MSc part 2 fail. I got my graduation from Khalsa College in Mumbai University. In a landscape that is moving towards skills as a currency to get jobs, the definition of merit has to undergo metamorphosis.”
Women in Leadership: The current landscape
Iyer’s story about redefining merit reflects a broader need for systemic change within corporate structures, aligning with findings from ‘The Quantum Hub’s Economic Graph’ report, which states that women representation across corporate India currently stands at 27 percent.
Only 1.8 percent of Fortune 500 companies in India have a board with at least three women directors, while approximately 20 percent adhere to the requirement of having at least one woman director as of FY23. Only 1.6 percent of MDs and CEOs in Fortune 500 companies in India are women, the report says.
Across the Fortune 1000 companies in India, just 3.2 percent are led by women MD/ CEOs. In the Next 500, a ranking of emerging companies, this figure rises to 5 percent. In India, women’s representation in leadership also varies across sectors. As of February 2024, in the Indian IT industry, none of the 54 companies in the NSE-1000 index had a female CEO.
Krishnan makes an interesting point. “The issue here is that we’re trying to fix long-standing problems in a very short time, which isn’t practical. Take the question of why we don’t see more women in leadership roles—it’s not something that can change overnight. You can’t become a leader after a one-week course; it’s about gradually moving up the ladder. Yet, when obstacles are put in their way, it’s like clipping their wings. The RG Kar incident is a prime example. Instead of addressing the root issues, the resulting regulations focused on how women should work, shifting the responsibility and safety concerns back onto women. I know many students considering a career in medicine are already being warned about these challenges.”
As per the Deloitte report, only 10 percent of women in India believe that their organisation is taking concrete steps to fulfil its commitment to gender diversity. About 30 percent of women in India say they don’t want to progress into a more senior leadership position. About 6 percent of women in India are worried about their safety when at work or while travelling to/from or for work. 14 percent deal with customers or clients who have harassed them or behaved in a way that has made them uncomfortable.
With the staggering statistic that 83 percent of women in India have faced workplace harassment, it makes you wonder how this environment impacts women’s ascent into leadership roles. Let’s take a look at the percentage of leadership positions women hold in some of India’s well-known organizations.
About 49 percent of over 300,000 people in Accenture India are women and 29 percent of Accenture’s leadership roles in India are held by women.
The percentage of women in Deloitte India leadership (Partner + Executive Director) stands at 17 percent versus 15 percent in 2021. There is currently at around 38-40 percent women representation. At the entry level, this is at 50 percent, with some functions even going beyond that.
Commerce enablement platform Mintoak’s workforce comprises 31 percent women, which is “higher than the industry average currently. 42 percent of leadership positions at Mintoak are held by women.”
Nearly 25 percent of Meesho’s workforce consists of women, and currently, 26 percent of its leadership roles are held by women.
Blusmart has close to 25 percent women in leadership roles. In the past 6 months, it has onboarded women in leadership roles in key functions such as brand and marketing, growth and strategy, corporate development, business development, customer experience, and technology.
Women make up 30 percent of Razorpay’s workforce, well above the industry average of 23.1 percent.
At ITC Ltd, about 40 percent of ITC’s management trainees and 47 percent of interns in 2024 were women.
About 9.61 percent of the total workforce are women in Tata Steel. The number of white collared women stands at 11.28 percent (1,600+), while the number of blue collared women stands at 8.89 percent (3,000+).
upGrad’s workforce comprises 43% women, and in leadership roles, it has 25% female representation.
Currently, women comprise 21 percent of the workforce at RPG. As a conglomerate with diverse businesses spanning IT services, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and plantations, “our representation of women exceeds the industry average in sectors like Manufacturing and Pharmaceuticals,” says Riya Dalvi, Vice President – HR, CEAT, RPG & Chairperson RPG DEI Council.
However, Dalvi admits that the current percentage of women in leadership roles at the organisation is lower than the percentage of overall women employees.
Naaz Mushrif, Global Head-Talent Management and Diversity, Tata Technologies, shares that TTL has over 1,600 women in its workforce, making up more than 15 percent of the talent pool. In core engineering sectors contributing significantly to India’s GDP, female representation remains low—around 3-12 percent, depending on the discipline. About 35 percent of our executive leadership roles are held by women.
Chetana Patnaik, CHRO, LTIMindtree, says, “We’re above 30 percent women representation overall as well as across all business lines, which is above average amongst ITeS companies. We are also on track to achieving our 2030 targets for achieving 40 percent women representation overall and 15 percent women representation at the leadership level.”
Sonata Software’s gender diversity ratio stands at 30.92 percent, with a rolling average of 30.51 percent for the period from August 2023 to August 2024.
DEI initiatives
Flipkart’s unified Parenting Policy provides equal support for all employees, regardless of how they choose to start a family—be it through biological conception, adoption, or surrogacy. “These measures have particularly advanced inclusivity for LGBTQIA+ families,” says Dr. Varadharaju Janardhanan, Vice President – HR, Flipkart and adds, “Through initiatives such as ‘Aarambh,’ which coaches staff in sign language to improve communication with employees with disabilities, we continue to foster an environment where everyone feels a sense of belonging.”
Zomato has Women and Trans-only hackathons, equal parental leave of 26 weeks, period leave, and Gender Reassignment Surgery Cover. They also have gender-neutral bathrooms and align with the UN’s Empowerment Principles. Meesho offers 30 days of leave for secondary caregivers, transition leave, and insurance for LGBTQIA+ and live-in partners.
Tata Steel provides DEI training for all staff and specialized programs through Employee Resource Groups like ‘WINGS’. RPG offers the R Shield harassment helpline and inclusive insurance, with facilities including ramps, gender-neutral restrooms, and childcare accommodations.
BluSmart has a Whistle Blower mechanism for employee concerns. It also providse flexible shift hours, emergency leaves, medical and accidental insurance for women drivers, transport for shift workers, and additional work-from-home options for returning mothers.
“Many of our new FMCG factories have been engaging significant number of women on the shopfloor with women representation between 50-75%. ITC has instituted progressive policies including a hybrid work model for employees based on the nature of the role, additional flexibility in work arrangements for expectant and young mothers, extended maternity and child care leave, travel support for infants and caregivers during business travel by women employees. A coaching and development programme called ‘ASCEND’ has been designed for women managers,” says Amitav Mukherji, Head, Corporate Human Resources, ITC Ltd.
However, there is an ongoing need for broader reforms as the POSH Act has certain limitations, particularly concerning the protection of LGBTQIA+ individuals and other marginalized groups in the workplace.
POSH Act: Limitations and the need for reform
LGBTQIA+ employees in India are more likely to have experienced non-inclusive behaviours than the global average: 70 percent versus 42 percent globally, as per a Deloitte report.
Two-thirds of Indian respondents believe these experiences were definitely because of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
Akshay CM, a DEI consultant admits that the lack of representation of LGBTQIA people in leadership is due to organisations not being considered safe for many people to come out. Some leaders might already be from the community.
“Differently abled people are also largely invisible, even though we have the RPW Act of 2016. It is very hard for organisations to implement all of this, from accessible toilets to accessible stairways. Not a lot of organisations are keen to make these reasonable accommodations. Organizations with a great international footprint can adhere to that, points out CM.
Akanksha Tiwary, Associate Partner, DSK Legal, says POSH has yet to make a meaningful impact in the informal sector, such as among domestic workers, where knowledge of the law is minimal and compliance is nearly non-existent, despite these being the most vulnerable groups. “The act does not recognise harassment faced by LGBTQIA+ individuals in the workplace as well,” she says.