First LGBT hiring consultancy soon

Almost a year after the landmark Supreme Court judgement decriminalising homosexuality, India is set to get its first dedicated hiring consultancy firm for members of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, intersex and queer/questioning) community.

Now, even after the change in law, members of India's LGBTIQ community lag behind their western counterparts in attaining equal pay, corporate representation and other benefits. The Bengaluru-based Diversity & Inclusion firm - Pride Circle - plans to shatter some of these stereotypes via a dedicated wing which will look at the job consultancy market for the LGBTIQ candidates.

"There is a lot of systemic bias and roadblock for LGBTI job seekers. These become even more challenging for visibly LGBTI individuals," Pride Circle's CoFounder Ramkrishna Sinha said. "Our goal is to work with companies to eliminate such conscious or unconscious biases in the recruitment process and also work with candidates to enable them for facing interviews. A lot of LGBTI candidates face issues of self-esteem, due to the series of discrimination they have faced."

Not just unemployment of LGBTIQ candidates, even the lack of sensitisation and unfriendly policies towards businesses that cater to this internationally significant segment of consumers has led to an estimated loss of around USD30 billion to India's GDP as per a World Bank report.

The 2014 World Bank report - Economic Cost of Homophobia and the exclusion of LGBTIQ people: A case of India - estimated that the country lost 0.1-1.7 per cent of the GDP due to homophobia.

"Companies have been hesitant in engaging and at times are unaware of the method to that engagement. The siloes leads to stereotypes and misinformation on both ends, leading to a growing chasm. Our aim is to build platforms of engagement for the community and corporation to meet," Sinha said. "We are encouraging corporations to have avenues of dialogue, look at opportunities to engage, besides a full time job, and these could be fellowship, internship, skill building programs etc."

Globally, this segment known, generically as ‘Pink Dollar Economy’ has become a financially significant sub-section of the consumer market for various industries like travel, insurance and even white goods.