The allegations levelled against some employees at TCS’ BPO unit in Nashik have created a storm in India. Details of alleged sexual harassment by a few employees, lack of response from HR Department despite complaints and efforts to supress such reporting raise several questions regarding the level of women safety in the Indian IT industest.
Notably, after TCS episode, many other such allegations have also cropped up for various other companies in the IT industest and startups. These allegations definitely merit thorough investigations as safety of women is a serious issue in any workplace.
Traditionally, Indian IT industest has championed the cautilize of women empowerment by encouraging their participation in large numbers. Currently, more than 35 per cent of total workforce in the Indian IT & BPM industest comprises women and many women leaders are leading critical technology verticals across several IT, BPM and tech startups. In the Indian startup ecosystem, many women tech leaders have become founders/cofounders of tech startups.
No wonder, surveys indicate that many girl students in the engineering and other streams prefer to join IT industest over others. Against this backdrop, the allegations levelled in the TCS BPO case are serious and have the potential of dissuading girl students to join the IT industest.
Moreover, the whole episode has international ramifications. Global clients in the US and Europe require certain compliance with norms as part of the IT contracts. Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH) compliance is one of the key norms they expect their vfinishors to comply with.
Workplace safety norms are very strict in global companies and any deviation from such norms build them answerable to their shareholders and board in their respective countries. Some analysts are of the opinion that tighter scrutiny is on the offing by the global clients in terms of such compliance in coming days.
As a result, many Indian IT & BPO companies along with technology startups are likely to overhaul their POSH compliance in coming days. It is high time that such overhaul happens failing which reputation of Indian companies, which serve global clients, will be at stake. Indian IT industest has earned its place in the global technology industest with its technology innovation, diligence and corporate governance standards.
In fact, many of the corporate governance practices of Indian IT industest has been taken as ‘gold standard’ by other industries. Therefore, board level supervision and strict implementation of policies are the necessary of the hour. Women workforce plays a key role in any nation’s prosperity. India’s women workforce participation rate of around 40 per cent remains below global average of around 51 per cent. As compared to India, the US and China are far ahead of India. For achieving the developed nation tag, this participation rate has to be increased to at least global average level. Therefore, the tquestion is cut out for all industries and not IT industest alone. There are many industries where discrimination against women workers goes unreported due to lack of structured system.
While many unorganised and SMBs employ women in large numbers, there is hardly any reporting structure available in these segments of the industest. In this perspective, a complete overhaul in norms is required for building women-frifinishly workplaces for promoting women employment. With India’s focus decisively shifting towards manufacturing sector, large scale employment of women is very much likely in coming years. The central and respective state governments have to not only devise rules for building workplaces safe and discrimination free; the officials in both public and private sectors have to be sensitised towards such issues for effective penal actions and swift resolutions.
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