Women in IT more than double to 20 lakh in a decade, make up 36% of workforce now, ETHRWorld

BENGALURU: The Indian tech sector has added more than a million women in direct employment in the past decade, underscoring concerted efforts from the industry, academia and government in fostering and supporting inclusive action.

Indian IT employed 9 lakh women, or 30% of the 3 million directly employed in the sector in 2012-13. Today, that number has doubled to more than 2 million, or 36% of the total workforce of 5.3 million in the industry.

A confluence of factors has accelerated women’s representation, including companies developing progressive policies to induct more women into the workforce, increased number of colleges offering computer science courses and more women opting for it, visible examples of women in leadership roles and several state governments enacting policy to enable women to work in night shifts.

Debjani Ghosh, president of the IT industry’s apex body Nasscom, said it is encouraging to see organisations formalising DE&I (diversity, equity & inclusion) strategies, budgeting for it and embedding it as a critical component to organisational culture and values. “We are seeing outstanding efforts from leaders in re-imagining benchmarks and accountability,” she said.

Ramkumar Ramamoorthy,…