IT lobby to encourage gender equity

New Delhi: NASSCOM, the premier trade body and the "voice" of the Indian IT industry, on Thursday announced that it would institute awards for companies to recognise outstanding practices promoting gender empowerment.

This was announced on the sidelines of the NASSCOM IT Women's Leadership Summit 2006, held in Bangalore on Thursday.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the summit, 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 a majority of the IT industry players already follow world-class HR practices, we also see certain examples of extraordinary practices that enable gender empowerment. It is with the objective of recognising and propagating such practices that NASSCOM will constitute an annual award for companies. We are hopeful that this award will serve to showcase the Indian IT sector's focus on this area, in addition to encouraging companies to do more to attract women employees."

NASSCOM conducted a study last year (June 2005) on women professionals in the IT industry.

The findings of the study have revealed that most women in this sector are very self confident, determined and immensely talented professionals and have managed to make their mark within their organisations, owing both to their hard and soft skills.

As the IT-ITES sector moves forward, more and more women are joining the industry. Today's successful women leaders will act as catalysts, drawing even more talent into the workforce.

In the IT industry, the men to women ratio was 76:24 in 2005, however, this ratio is likely to be 65:35 (men:women) by the year 2007.

While the percentage of women in the IT talent pool is steadily increasing, the majority of women are still at the bottom of the pyramid and there are comparatively few women in senior leadership positions in the industry today.

Indian companies are proactively creating an environment of inclusion to attract and retain women employees, realising that their unique style and perspectives add to the value of their enterprises in innovation, productivity and quality.

Some reasons that emerged from the survey that are make women successful in this industry are:

IT does not require any specific skills that are gender dependent

Women are intrinsically suited to work within the IT-ITES industry as they are good communicators

Being present from the nascent years in the industry itself helps them attain an at-par status with their male counterparts

Women are particularly adept in important skills, multitasking and collaborative team play

This sector provides flexibility in working hours, and hence is more friendly to women employees, who need to juggle career aspirations and home

NASSCOM is hosting the first IT Women's Leadership Summit to highlight the need for more women and women leaders in the IT industry.

The Summit will spotlight the challenges women face in their career growth and how they can be addressed. It will focus on:

Insights on how global companies in IT and related industries have benefited by having more women leaders in their organisations

Sensitising senior management and policy makers in the IT and ITES industry on gender inclusivity and women-friendly policies that recognise the aspirations and needs of women