Women’s Representation at India Inc. Remains Stable at 37%: 2024 Avtar & Seramount BCWI – MICI Study

India, September 27^th, 2024: Avtar, India’s pioneer and leading workplace culture consulting company, today announced findings from the 9^th 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.

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Dr. Saundarya Rajesh – Founder and 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.”

She further added, “It is remarkable to witness how organizations across geographies are increasingly committed to creating work environments where diversity is empowered to thrive. The BCWI study and the MICI continue to be a beacon of progress and as we move forward, we remain committed to enabling workplaces where equality is not just a goal, but a reality. The DEI rigour and focus of the participating companies prove that they are keen on turning around challenges into opportunities. We are thrilled to congratulate the companies recognised in the listing this year, for their unwavering commitment to DEI in their actions and spirit.”

“Most Inclusive Companies Index helps companies in India focus their efforts to understand gaps and provide specific strategies, programs, tools, and resources to help raise the standard on DEI strategies for under-represented talent including gender, LGBTQ+, PWD, and different generations.” said Subha Barry, President of Seramount. “We celebrate the leadership, employees, and initiatives that foster an inclusive environment where women and all talent can thrive.” she further added.

This year BWCI received 361 applications from organizations across various industries, regions and sectors in India, out of which companies from industries as diverse as Automotive, BFSI, Chemical, Conglomerate, Consumer Products, E-Commerce, Global Capabilities Center, Hospitality, Health Care, IT, ITES, Logistics and Management Consulting, Manufacturing, Media, Pharmaceutical, Professional Services, Real Estate, Retail and Apparel, and Science & Engineering, Telecommunication and Utilities, made it to the Best Companies List.  The study accepted applications from companies between February 2024, and July 2024. The Top Companies and Best Companies for Women in India were chosen based on their efforts towards gender inclusion, as represented in their applications.  The Emerging Icons had 52 companies applying to participate, of which the winning list features 10 companies.

The companies that feature in MICI together employ 7427 people with disabilities. The champions of inclusion together employ 4652 people with disabilities, the exemplars have over 2275 PwD employees working for them.

• Accenture Solutions Private Limited
• AXA XL India Business Services Pvt. Ltd.
• Barclays in India
• Cairn Oil and Gas, Vedanta Limited
• Citibank
• IBM India Private Limited
• KPMG in India
• Lear Corporation
• Tech Mahindra Limited

• Accenture Solutions Private Limited
• AXA XL India Business Services Pvt. Ltd.
• Citibank
• IBM India Private Limited
• Infosys Limited
• KPMG in India
• Midland Credit Management India Private Limited
• Target Corporation India Pvt. Ltd.
• Tech Mahindra Limited

Avtar, set up in 2000, is India’s first diversity advocate & workplace inclusion expert. Stepping into its 25the glorious year, renowned for the extensive work in the space of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) and more specifically, women’s workforce participation, Avtar is now an ISO 20700 Certified firm. Under the visionary leadership of Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Avtar has ventured into areas of gender inclusion career creation, which are firsts to India, including:

• Creating platforms for second career women to meet potential employers,
• Developing a comprehensive set of career enablers which companies can implement in their workspaces
• Spearheading original research that has provided cutting edge insights to organization
• Creating India’s largest diversity benchmarking platform – Avtar & Seramount Best Companies for women in India
• Creating India’s first diversity hiring portal myavtar.com for women, LGBTǪ, PWD, Veterans and
• Silver Generation
• Re-skilling, Up-skilling, and Counselling women to pursue sustainable career paths and
• Building career intentionality amongst underprivileged girl children

To know more visit www.avtarinc.com | www.myavtar.com

Seramount is a strategic professional services and research firm dedicated to supporting high- performing, inclusive workplaces. Over four decades, we’ve established a strong, data-driven understanding of the employee experience, which lays the groundwork for everything we do. Seramount partners with over 450 of the world’s most influential companies, large and small, to offer pragmatic solutions including best practice DEI research, workplace assessment employee learning and development, and talent sourcing. These offerings empower companies to navigate a dynamic corporate environment and to cultivate a resilient, connected workforce that achieves extraordinary outcomes. Learn more at seramount.com.