RIGHT TO BELONG

American billionaires are miffed with DEI, but India Inc. is not. Many Indian companies are looking at DEI to leverage the country's multifarious diversities, yet a lot remains to be done

- Ankita Mookherjee

In the 2000s, Uma Maheshwari used to work at a private bank. She quit her job in 2010, when her two children were just 12 and nine years old. "Two children are quite a handful," she says. As her children grew older and independent, Maheshwari felt she was ready to get back to work. She approached HerKeyjobs-an organisation that helps women return to the workforce after a break.

They helped Maheshwari land an interview with a private bank five years after she had taken a break from her banking career. What helped her get back to work, she says, are diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives employed by companies during hiring.

DEI, once conceived as the potion meant to treat inequalities, is going through a bit of a rough phase of late. In January this year, American billionaire Bill Ackman wrote on X, "DEI was inherently a racist and illegal movement even though it claims that it works on behalf of the oppressed." Tesla chief executive Elon Musk shared Ackman's post on X.

Since then, Tesla has omitted mention of outreach to minorities in its 10-K filings made before the Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 10-K is an annual report filed by American companies detailing their financial performance.

The pushback against DEI by American billionaires is because it's very premise is perceived to be discriminatory. Musk noted that "DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it." DEI, they argue, discriminates on the basis of ascribed identities, seen as being both immoral and illegal in the US that has a long history of equal rights activism.