By Mumtaz Alam, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, 09 July 2015: The Facebook recently released a report about social diversity of its workforce both in the United States and worldwide. It was second year that Facebook released such report. Some international firms like Hewlett-Packard and Intel have been releasing this data publicly for several years. But at home, no private firm in India has ever revealed social composition of its workforce. The demand for such disclosure became stronger after the 19th May incident when a Mumbai diamond firm brazenly denied job to a Muslim youth Zeeshan Ali Khan merely on religious ground.
IndiaTomorrow.net did a story on the social diversity report of Facebook on 26th June. Three days later, it sent a query to three major Indian companies from different fields asking their take on disclosure of social composition of their workforce.
“The Facebook, as a firm, has just released a report on the social diversity of its workforce ( http://newsroom.fb.com/news/2015/06/driving-diversity-at-facebook/ ). The Facebook started doing it from last year while many companies including Hewlett-Packard and Intel have been releasing such report for long. Do You Think India’s private sector should also disclose social composition of its workforce? Will your firm take the lead?”
This was the email sent to AirTel, Wipro and Kasturi & Sons which publishes The Hindu English daily and other papers on 29th June. The same day we also tweeted a question tagging AirTel, Wipro and The Hindu: “@Facebook has disclosed social diversity of its workforce. Will India’s private sector follow it? @Wipro @airtelindia @TheHindu @MaliniP”.
But almost 10 days have passed since the email and tweet sent, no response has come from any of the three companies.
What does their silence mean?
“It clearly shows that they are working with casteist mindset. It is open that they take caste consideration. In the time of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the government brought LPG – liberalization, privatization and globalization. After privatization, reservation was automatically gone,” says Bhai Tej Singh, president of Ambedkar Samaj Party.
“Caste based census report has come but the government is hiding it.”
It is said that American law requires even the private sector (that meet certain criteria) to disclose the social composition of its employees to the government, but they are not obligated to make this information public. However, Hewlett-Packard and Intel have been releasing this data publicly for several years. Facebook joined the league in 2014.
Do you think India should also have a law that binds the private sector to disclose the social composition of their workforce?
“It is possible only when the deprived sections of society come to power. Political empowerment of these sections is the remedy,” said Bhai Tej Singh.
A 2006 survey of the Centre of Study of Developing Societies found that in the Indian media not a single decision-maker belonged to either the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes.
Social audit of India Inc.
A forum of Muslim professionals strongly supports the demand for disclosure of social composition of workforce in the private sector in order to know if all communities are getting their due share.
“There must be a social audit in India Inc. It is important to know whether or not all the communities are getting their due share as per their population in the country. If communities are not given fair and equal chances on the basis of religion or language, it will hamper the growth of India in the long run and will create an imbalanced society. Social inclusion of all the communities is a critical aspect of achieving long-term development that will significantly improves the lives of the country’s poorest people,” says Aamir Edresy, national president of Association of Muslim Professionals.
Edresy says that in most of the private companies, people from marginalized sections get blue collar jobs.
“This social audit must be used to find not only ratio of employment of these communities but also the employment categories. It must be noted that in most of the cases the marginalized and underprivileged communities get very lower level jobs and they are strategically being deprived of job profiles with decision making.”
Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, India’s largest socio-religious organization of the Muslim community, has also come out to support the demand. It says disclosure of social composition of workforce will force the private firms to make equal recruitment.
“In India, Muslims are the most unemployed community. If social composition reports are published they will compel the private sector to recruit more Muslims. Publication of such reports will put social compulsion on them to do so. India Inc. should open doors for all particularly Muslims as they are more jobless. If international companies are disclosing social composition of their workforce, Indian companies should also follow them,” says Mohammad Ahmed, Secretary for national and community issues, Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.
Gujarat’s eminent businessman and CEO of Parsoli Motors, Zafar Sareshwala bats for disclosure of social composition of workforce in private sector of India.
“Yes, it should be done in India also, this will be an important initiative to see where have we reached in terms of inclusive character of our corporate world in post independent 21st century India. It will give an opportunity for +ve affirmation to push the weaker and vulnerable section of the society upwards in the corporate ladder,” says Sareshwala who is considered close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mumbai MBA graduate Zeeshan Ali Khan who was denied job by the Mumbai diamond firm on religious ground also supports the demand.
“I stand with you in this cause. I firmly believe there needs to be transparency in this regard to job,” says Khan who was later offered job by Adani Group of Gujarat.
His two Hindu friends who had declined the job offer from the Mumbai firm in protest against discrimination with their friends Khan were later offered job by Sareshwala.
