An increasing number of manufacturing majors in India are challenging gender stereotypes by inducting more women on the shop floor, driven primarily by a business case to widen the talent pool.
JSW Group, Aditya Birla Group, Tata Motors, RPG Group and MG Motors India are among the companies that are looking to hire more women for positions ranging from shop floor managers to workers–job roles traditionally dominated by men.
Jayant Acharya, joint managing director and chief executive of JSW Steel, told ET that the company’s new colour-coated steel manufacturing unit in Kashmir’s Pulwama, which is expected to be commissioned by March, will have more than 50% women.
“This initiative not only meets our gender diversity objectives but also aims to create an inclusive workplace that will offer opportunities for local women to become economically self-reliant,” Acharya said. The company’s coil-to-plate and sheet processing line unit at Vijayanagar in Karnataka’s Ballari district is entirely managed by a group of about 60 female engineers. Meanwhile, group company JSW Paints is creating colorant lines that will be managed by women, said its CEO, AS Sundaresan.
At Aditya Birla Group, more than 50% of the new engineering hires on the shop floor are women, said Santrupt Misra, group director, Birla Carbon and Group HR head, ABG. The impetus is also coming from increased automation, relaxation of regulation in some states to induct women in night shifts, and women-friendly shop floor infrastructure such as washrooms and creche for the new mothers.
“A combination of factors is leading to this change. This includes proactive efforts by corporates to have career enablers for women in place, more women joining engineering and STEM courses, greater number of women willing to take up factory jobs amid a societal change,” said Misra.
Although the manufacturing sector remains male-dominated – with representation of women at 5-15% – the companies which realise that the business needs a wider talent pool are taking proactive measures to move the needle, said experts. At Tata Motors, about 23% of new hires on the shop floor are women.
“The target is to take this up to 25%,” said a company spokesperson.
The auto major has more than 4,500 women working on the shop floor across all its plants, while more than 1,850 women help assemble commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses.
Tata’s Pune plant, which assembles the bigger sports utility vehicles Harrier and Safari, has an all-women workforce of 1,600 across three shifts.
Automaker MG Motor India employs women across a spectrum of roles. The company has put in place a policy of gender-neutral job description, said Yeshwinder Patial, HR senior director of MG Motor India, whose Hector is assembled by an all-women crew.
