Corporate India Gets Used to Women On Shop Floor

Why manufacturing, operations and engineering companies are hiring more women for traditionally male-dominated jobs.

- AJITA SHASHIDHAR

L&T’S UPCOMING 15-storey office on its Mannapakkam campus in Chennai is perhaps the first-of-its-kind in India. No, it is not an architectural wonder. What makes it unique is that all employees, right from project manager to on-site engineers and blue-collared employees, are women. For C. Jayakumar, executive vice president & head, corporate human resource, L&T, who put massive effort to increase percentage of women employees from a measly 6% to 8.3% in last two years, this is monumental. “We are changing the mindset that women can’t work on project sites. Though we have hired a lot of women for engineering design and research centres, apart from finance, HR and other corporate roles, over 80% of our business happens on project sites where we hardly have women,” says Jayakumar.

This does not mean that the L&T leadership isn’t cognisant of this. Executives say their efforts were limited by the fact that most of their work involves building tunnels, bridges and roads in remote locations. It found it easier to hire women only when it got into real estate, metro rail and airport projects, which are based in cities, they add.

Most legacy companies (be it Tata Group, JSW, Mahindra, Maruti, SAIL or ONGC) in manufacturing and engineering services—sectors that contribute 17.4% to GDP—are grappling with a similar problem. They may be among the largest employers but score abysmally low (3%) on women employment, according to industry data. Even better performers such as L&T, ONGC and SAIL are at 6-8%.