HARVESTING EMPOWERMENT

Swaraj Tractors is nurturing a culture of inclusivity and diversity on its shopfloors. The Machinist toured the company’s plants in Mohali and also caught up with Harish Chavan, CEO, Swaraj Division, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. to understand more…

- Niranjan Mudholkar

This is not a story of farm equipment manufacturing. This is a story of freedom from gender discrimination. This is a story of empowerment in the true sense. This is a story of women, who are capturing newer fronts in the male-dominated manufacturing industry. This is the story of Swaraj Tractors, which has showed the courage to introduce women employees on the shopfloor.

It was about seven years ago that Swaraj started recruiting women on the shopfloor to bring diversity and to create a better work culture in the organisation. The initiative was started by recruiting 14 women employees in one plant in the core manufacturing function. These female workers were deployed in the assembly and the machine shop. Of course, today, these ladies are also working in areas of heat treatment and stores. Between its two plants in Mohali, Chandigarh, Swaraj Tractors today deploys 102 women employees in core manufacturing. In fact, the dashboard sub assembly station in Plant-2 is exclusively managed by women employees today.

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