Companies need to provide safe workplaces

Companies cannot discriminate on grounds of gender while hiring. They are also bound by law to ensure a safe work environment for women employees.

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, mandates companies to protect women employees from sexual harassment at the workplace and ensure that male employees abide by the rules and regulations put in place. Rise in sexual harassment cases and the inability of some corporates to provide that all-important legal protection and guarantee could be the main reason why organisations prefer to hire only male candidates, say HR experts.

“Would Indian managers be hiring more women, if the Act was not in place? No way. Hiring managers need to change their mindset. Diversity and inclusion has to start from the top and the leaders have to walk the talk,” says Abhishek Singh, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, who is also COO of Yostartups.com, a global job portal for new ventures.

Singh says that people running employment websites should be careful and use filters to ensure discriminatory advertisements do not pop up on their websites. “We have already put a software to filter such things,” he adds.

Ranjana Kumari, director, Centre for Social Research, says that protecting women from sexual harassment is a legal guarantee which companies are unable to ensure and, therefore, prefer to hire male candidates. “Instead of taking responsibility and creating a workplace that promotes gender equality and gives respect to women, these advertisements suggest that companies are not willing to invest in a decent work environment,” says Kumari.

Agrees Gaurav Khaitan, an IIT Roorkee alumnus and COO of a fashion start-up, Mr Button. “The biggest reason for not hiring females is that companies want to avoid paying them for the maternity period and ensuring their safety and security. It is profit and personal greed which drives this behaviour. Lack of monitoring encourages such behaviour. Indian law is lame in protecting the rights of female candidates.” Kamal Singh, director general, National HRD Network, is of the opinion that firms are cautious of sexual harassment cases and “think twice before hiring women employees. That fear could be more pronounced in the unorganised sector where awareness levels are low. However, in large corporates, there are strict checks in place to ensure there is a congenial work environment. It is rare that one comes across such genderspecific biases.”