If you find that despite your best efforts, biases persist, true inclusivity stays out of the picture, and marginalized communities remain excluded in your workplace, you’re not alone.
Many organizations face similar challenges, especially in balancing the need for diversity with existing policies and practices that may inadvertently perpetuate inequality.
In this blog, we’ll explore the current state of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in India, highlight the gaps and challenges in private sector inclusivity, and examine how true inclusion can be achieved.
Index
What is the Current State of DEI in India
India is recognized as a diverse country that guarantees equality for everyone and prohibits discrimination over religion, race, caste, gender, or place of birth.
But there’s a challenge that we need to address.
While the constitution and laws want to provide equal opportunities for everyone and uplift marginalized communities, mostly it has been limited to papers for only public sectors.
One main reason for this could be that at the time of independence, the public sector was the only employer, so the laws were created keeping that in mind.
What is the Scope of Inclusion in India
The private sector employs more people today than the public sector. They’re also gradually embracing inclusivity.
But there’s a problem.
Their efforts are mainly limited to gender diversity (specifically towards women even though India recognizes three genders). And even for women’s diversity, they don’t give any commitment or put affirmative actions in place.
It leads to the persistence of biases, and the marginalized communities tend to stay marginalized.
Now, you might ask, what about private companies that claim to promote inclusivity?
They do it, but often their employment records tell a different story. Not because they don’t do what they preach, but because their definition of inclusivity needs fixing.
Their annotation of inclusivity is treating all employees with similar respect, benefits (by levels of course), and performance measures.
But would you call it inclusivity?
See, if you enquire about the employee records of such companies, you’ll find a lack of equity pay between genders. Plus, it’ll direct you towards self-imposed company policies about the maximum pay hike that can be offered when hiring.
It means if they hired a woman from a low paying company, she’ll continue to be on a lower pay scale given the requirements to adhere to these policies.
In fact, if you were to audit the hiring practices of private organizations, you’ll find that most of them don’t even have roles poised for diversity hires. Nor do they have measures to assess the potential of such employees without biases.
Even though the laws require equal pay for equal work, factors like education and location (like tier-based city) take precedence, and organizations don’t have unbiased merit assessments for them.
In addition to that, the hiring practices don’t record the diversity status of candidates.
If they’d do it, they’d be liable to give the reasons for rejections of a candidate from the marginalized community.
Organizations Workforce Diversity Report and the Responsibility of Employers
Do organizations report the distribution of their workforce from an Inclusion standpoint? To answer that, first let’s understand inclusion in India.
To this date, India recognizes:
- 3 genders: Male, female, and the ones who identify as neither or both.
- 1170 Schedule Castes
- 747 Scheduled Tribes
- 2479 Other Backward Classes
The next type of diversity is “disabled.” They make up about 2.2% of the population.
In 1999, the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People surveyed the top 100 companies in India based on sales, profits, assets, and market capitalization for the financial year 1997-98.
The sectoral breakdown then was as follows:
- Public sector companies: 23
- Private sector companies: 63
- Multinational companies: 14
Out of which, only 70% of the companies responded:
- Public sector: 20 out of 23 (87% response rate)
- Private sector: 40 out of 63 (63% response rate)
- Multinational: 10 out of 14 (71% response rate)
The percentage of disabled employees in these 70 companies was only 0.40%:
- Public sector: 0.54%
- Private sector: 0.28%
- Multinationals: 0.05%
Currently, as per EY’s Humans at the Centre of Sustainability Transformation 2023 report, in India only 1040 listed companies have a strategic focus on DEI. Yet only 23% of women constitute permanent employees.
Based on such data, it’s questionable to declare we’re truly inclusive.
The SC, ST, and OBC account for approximately 70% of India’s population.
But do you see private companies employing 70% of their workforce from these diverse groups?
If not, their claim to be inclusive is false.
Upon posing a question about their equal hiring practices for inclusivity, you often receive a response that the candidates from these communities lack the required skills.
Nonetheless, I believe this is the responsibility of the employer to impart those skills to these candidates.
A Call for True Inclusion
The global standard for diversity and inclusivity DISM (Diversity and Inclusion Service Management) and ISO-30415 outlines 27 diversity types, set processes, and practices for organizations to be recognized as “truly inclusive.”
Just like other ISO standards like ITSM (Information Technology Service Management), this standard helps organizations embrace comprehensive diversity standards, be recognized as inclusive employers, enhance D&I effectiveness in ESG, and reduce litigation risks.
Over 25 countries have adopted this standard, and the numbers are growing.
AlterEgo Accelerators, in collaboration with Inclusion Score, has introduced the DISM – ISO 30415 Certification in India for organizations, activities, advocates, allies, professionals, and promoters of D&I to get certified and establish truly inclusive practices in India, contributing to the upliftment of all communities.
So, join us. Together, we can build a more equitable and inclusive society