“Prime Minister Modi in his maiden Independence Day speech gave a strong signal of intent and emphasized a significant shift in policies and outlook towards women and women’s issues. Social welfare through targeted social schemes is one aspect. But real empowerment comes when you provide financial empowerment which increases the independence of women in society”  said Shri Anurag Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs, adding “Gone are the days when India referred to only one woman Prime Minister as a symbolic tokenism for women’s empowerment. Today you are leading voices in every single sector and avenue of life. The Modi Government will continue to go the extra mile to facilitate, empower and support women.”

Shri Thakur was speaking at the Annual Conference of the CII National Committee on Women Empowerment & Indian Women Network (IWN) in New Delhi today. Held on a virtual platform, the theme for the Conference was Leading Change: What's in it for me?. At the Conference, eminent people from government, industry and thought leaders deliberated on the role of women in India’s development and ways to increase their participation in the workforce.

Speaking at the opening session, Ms Vaishali Nigam Sinha, Chairperson, CII National Committee on Women Empowerment & IWN, and Chief CSR & Sustainability Officer, ReNew Power, said that women shoulder several responsibilities at home and there is a pressing need to encourage women to join the workforce. “We need to step up at work and step back at home. Everybody needs to be equally responsible and create a balance.”

Drawing on her experience as an entrepreneur, Ms Suchitra Ella, Founding Chairperson, CII IWN & Director, Bharat Biotech International, said “Entrepreneurship and starting out for the first time is a phenomenal challenge. As women we need to pull ourselves beyond the levels of what we can normally do and be at pace with men and be agile.”

While Ms Rumjhum Chatterjee, Group MD, Feedback Infra said there is a huge generational shift compared to 20 years ago in the way women are perceived, and their participation in the workforce, Ms Bhairavi Jani, Executive Director and Owner, SCA Group, was of the view that while there were some changes, much still needs to be done, especially in response to newly arising issues such as woman safety.

At a CEO Panel Discussion, Ms Vinita Bali, Global Business Leader, said that the change has to be driven from the top, adding that mandates and mindsets have to change to bring about a significant change. Mr Ashwath Ram, Managing Director, Cummins India Ltd. shared the steps his company is taking to encourage participation of women in the workforce. “We have set ourselves a goal where we can achieve the gender parity in our organisation within next 5 years. This is a multi-year exercise where we have to make people understand the importance of women working in different depts of the company.”  Ms Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM said “When you have strong women representation  in a leadership role in a company, the business results are far better, and this is a proven fact. We got to stop looking at pay parity as gender discussion but look at it as business discussion.”

Mr Nitin Prasad, Chairman, Shell Companies spoke about the importance of taking concrete steps to retain and reintegrate women who have had to take a break, back in the workforce.

Ms Lakshmi Chandrasekharan, MD, Human Resources Accenture and Ms Ruchira Jaitley  Head, Marketing, HMD Global shared their personal journeys and suggestions for women to invest in themselves as professionals while devoting adequate time to selfcare to progress as professionals.

Pointing to the way forward, Ms Dakshita Das, Additional Member Finance, Ministry of Railways at CII Annual Conference on Women Empowerment, said “While working with several groups, specially with women we found out that the fire in the belly is very much there but the self-vision is limited. The enabling provisions are there which will go a long way and will make a gender equal workforce.”

Ten companies identified as Best Workplaces for Women by the Great Place to Work Institute were felicitated at the CII Annual Conclave on Women Empowerment.

Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd.

Cushman & Wakefield

Ernst & Young

GE India Industrial Pvt. Ltd.

HERE Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

HP

Intuit India

Marks & Spencer Reliance India Pvt. Ltd.

PayPal India Pvt. Ltd.

Synchrony International Services Pvt. Ltd.

18 March 2021