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Diversity & Inclusion is more than Gender Diversity or Diversity Hiring
Diversity & Inclusion is more than Gender Diversity or Diversity Hiring

September 10, 2022

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It is undeniable that discrimination continues to exist in corporates, although constitutional provisions and a number of other laws explicitly prohibit such actions.  Several factors such as gender, physical and mental abilities, sexual orientation and identity, age, medical condition etc., are used to make distinctions between people that lead to various hiring decisions. 

India too has in the recent years enacted several progressive legislations namely the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition & Redressal) Act, 2013 (“POSH”), The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (“RPWD”), The Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Prevention and Control) Act, 2017 (“HIV”), The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019 (“Transgender”) amongst others

The Government has in fact going beyond the traditional D&I portfolio and is emphasising that Inclusiveness is also about being open and inclusive for people in specific situations i.e. people having HIV/AIDS.

In India, we must acknowledge that considerable strides have been done by corporates with respect to gender diversity & inclusion.  But we as society should do more with respect to other constituents of workplace diversity. 

As per National Statistics Office report for 2018, about 2.2% of India’s population lives with some kind of physical or mental disability; though I believe the actual number is much higher. Last year, in one of the landmark judgments by the Supreme Court of India with respect to RPWD, Justice Dr. D. Y. Chandrachud had aptly articulated that in order to enable persons with disabilities to lead a life of equal dignity and worth, it is not enough to mandate that discrimination against them is impermissible. That is necessary, but not sufficient. Corporates must equally ensure, as a society, that they provide them the additional support and facilities that are necessary for them to offset the impact of their disability.   The cornerstone of this reasonable accommodation principle is making adjustments that enable a disabled person to effectively counter the barriers posed by their disability.  In fact, a failure to provide reasonable accommodation itself constitutes discrimination.    We as society need to shift from a “charity-based” to a “rights-based” perspective.

Most of the corporates are not aware that all our physical and virtual infrastructure too need to be mandatorily disabled friendly.   In fact, recently Court of Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, New Delhi directed a well-known technology platform to comply with the Guidelines for Indian Government Websites ("GIGW') and notification issued by Bureau of Indian Standards, which has notified IS17801 Parts I and 2 in relation to Accessibility of Information & Communication Technology Products and Services within 6 months as mandated by RPWD.

Reasonable accommodation determinations must be made on a case-by-case basis, in consultation with the disabled person concerned. Instead of making assumptions about how the relevant barriers can be tackled, the principle of reasonable accommodation requires dialogue with the individual concerned to determine how to tackle the barrier.   The relevant question, under the reasonable accommodation analysis, is not whether complications will be caused by the grant of a reasonable accommodation. By definition, reasonable accommodation demands departure from the status quo and hence ‘avoidable complications’ are inevitable. The relevant question is whether such accommodations would give rise to a disproportionate or undue burden on the company.

I believe that the aforesaid principle would equally apply to other types of diversity.  In fact, people sometimes use the terms diversity & inclusion interchangeably, but they are quite distinct. More often, corporates focus on increasing diversity without focusing on the necessary foundation that enables diversity. You can certainly hire in diversity — whether it's more women or LGBTQ+, more people with disability but if your work culture does not embrace different perspectives and not provide a support framework, you will not be able to retain diversity.

In this direction, importance of diversity training program and redressal mechanism cannot be overstated. In fact, all Indian legislation mandatorily provide for it.  When employees become aware of concepts like unconscious bias in the workplace, they can realize how these concepts show up in real-world situations. Raising awareness about diversity and inclusion is important to create a happy and positive work environment.  Diversity training helps employees to understand different perspectives of their colleagues and encourage them to think about how their actions could unintentionally offend someone. Increased workplace sensitivity is a strong step against discrimination and harassment.  Diversity training further allows employees to think about inclusion and how they can make conscious efforts to make everyone feel comfortable and valued.


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Vishal Kedia
Founder & Director

With a prodigious team that shares this vision, Complykaro has helped over 500 clients, including government organisations, NGOs, universities, corporates, etc., in PoSH compliance by training and sensitizing over 20,00,000 employees and managers through its award-winning PoSH training solutions. Empanelled by the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India as a Resource Company for providing PoSH Training, our training modules are regularly updated to keep up with any social and work-culture changes, for instance, the rise in work from home scenarios. Harnessing the latest technological and legal resources at our disposal, we can also customise programs to be suited for your organisation and provide awareness & training through online sessions, in-house classrooms and other interactive mediums.

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