India’s IT sector has nearly three times more males than females: Report

• A recent ‘Universum India Talent Survey 2019’ has shown a widening gender gap in India’s IT sector.
  
• According to the report, the IT sector has nearly 26% female students, compared to 74% of males.
  
• On the contrary, the engineering and the IT sector has been actively hiring, recording an 11% increase in May 2019.

While IT sector employed a major chunk of India’s workforce, gender equality at work still remains a challenge to the organisations.

A recent report titled “Universum India Talent Survey 2019” has shown a widening gender gap in the Engineering and the IT sector — which has merely 26% of the female students. While the male representation in engineering stood at 74%, nearly three times that of female participation, the report noted.

Different variables that contribute to a widening gender gap are health, education, economy, and policies. Other variables such as automation affect the roles traditionally played by females disproportionately.

“At the same moment, in increasing job fields that require STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) abilities and expertise, females are under-represented,” Bhajneet Dhingra, an independent Talent Advisor told Business Insider.

Women are bogged down by constraints that range from tougher workplaces to handling excessive household responsibilities. “Another potential reason is that the infrastructure required to assist females to enter or re-enter the workforce is underdeveloped, and unpaid work remains mainly the responsibility of females,” he added.

According to the data by National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), women constitute only 42% of graduates in the country and a handful(23%) of the employable women in India were actually employed in the workforce in 2017-18.

Overall, IT students look for work-life balance, international exposure and stability on the job front, according to the Universum Indian Talent report.

A few organisations have taken steps to counter gender gap across roles — from maternity leaves to child daycare centres. For instance, the food delivery platform Zomato rolled out a 26-week leave policy for both men and women, including the cases of adoption and surrogacy.

The average expected salary among IT students was recorded as ₹945,852, annually. India ranks sixth in terms of employee remuneration.

See also:
Indian women earn 19% less than men, says study

Zomato announces a 26-week paid leave for parents of all genders, sexualities – $1000 bonus per child for new parents