Avtar, India's pioneer and leading workplace culture consulting company, today announced findings from the 9th edition of 'Best companies for women in India (BCWI)', listing. The 2024 Avtar & Seramount findings mark an evolution in the workplace culture in India, as the initiative nears the close of a decade. Data emerging from the survey establishes that average women representation across industries today is at 36.6% and close to 40% at entry level. Sectors like professional services are close to gender balance with 46% women while manufacturing reported a gender ratio of 20%, an indication of intensifying efforts.
The 2024 annual listing deep-dives and provides industry-wise listing for the first time establishing that the IT industry as the single largest employer of women with 24% companies in the listing, Banking & Financial Services Industry (BFSI) follows with a distant 11% and close to 20 other sectors ranging across manufacturing, pharma, healthcare, media & entertainment, hospitality, etc. trail with fewer companies featuring on the list. This year's listing also includes a new category of listing- "Best Companies for Women in India- Emerging Icon", organizations with 100-500 employees in their Indian operations, where 33% of the workforce are women and an encouraging 26% is the gender ratio at the leadership level.
Avtar also released the sixth edition of its annual 'Most Inclusive Companies Index' (MICI), wherein interestingly, from 58% companies focusing on People with Disabilities (PwDs) in 2019, the number has risen significantly to 98% of companies focusing on building inclusive work environments for PwDs. The index further broadens the understanding of inclusivity in India by evaluating diverse dimensions including gender, disability, age and culture.
Dr. Saundarya Rajesh - Founder, President, Avtar, celebrating the progress expressed, "We are at a unique, paradox and juncture in India today with respect to women's participation in the workforce; we have made significant progress in many areas such as the sheer volume of the women workforce, the facilities and flexibilities provided and the benefits to name a few but yet far behind in leveraging the opportunity - of enabling women in leadership positions, of ensuring rise in women participation and distribution across sectors and needless to emphasise women's safety and well-being at the workplace so that they are encouraged to stay and grow. We are committed to keep nudging and raising the bar at Avtar and this year's report takes one more step in that direction - of recognising emerging companies on their initiatives towards increasing and enabling women in the workforce and of deep-diving into the data industry-wise so that we have an incisive reflection of the gaps and areas that we need to work on."
