Gender Inclusion at Work is a Design Challenge, Not Intentions
Without enforceable standards, portable social protection, and public investment in care, gender parity at work will remain structurally unattainable
A background note can be accessed here: NITI Aayog’s Report on Gender Parity at Workplace
Phalasha Nagpal: Livelihoods and Social Inclusion Lead, Oxford Policy Management
SDG 5: Gender Equality | SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
Ministry of Labour and Employment | Ministry of Women and Child Development | Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship
NITI Aayog’s compendium highlights a sharp drop in women’s representation across career stages, resulting in very low leadership participation. What governance and organisational mechanisms are most effective in addressing these attrition points, and how can policy move firms beyond voluntary commitments?
The decline in women’s representation across career stages reflects deep structural and normative barriers rather than individual choice. Early-stage attrition is driven by the absence of gender-responsive workplaces – evidenced by extremely low short-term retention – with barely 10 percent of women remaining in employment beyond three months. Basic enablers – functional washrooms, crèches, transport safety, grievance redressal, and effective enforcement of POSH – are therefore foundational to sustaining participation, particularly in low-paid, informal, and gender-segregated sectors like apparel.
Mid-career attrition intensifies around marriage and caregiving, and is compounded by weak access to leadership pathways, professional networks, and formal skill mobility. Employers and training providers can mitigate this through institutionalised leadership, communication, and negotiation training, alongside structured mentorship and sponsorship embedded in organisational processes. Formal upskilling and reskilling pathways that allow movement across roles and sectors are especially critical amid AI-driven disruption and green transitions, where occupational churn is likely to intensify.
At senior levels, recruitment and promotion systems often penalise non-linear careers. Panel-based decisions with gender representation and explicit recognition of career breaks can reduce this bias. Policy can accelerate adoption by linking public procurement, incentives, and eligibility criteria to measurable improvements in women’s retention progression, and leadership representation–thereby shifting firms from symbolic commitments to institutional accountability.
The report suggests that voluntary corporate initiatives alone may be insufficient to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). What disclosure requirements or regulatory frameworks could strengthen accountability on gender parity while avoiding superficial compliance or excessive administrative burden on firms?
Voluntary corporate DEI initiatives, while valuable as signalling mechanisms, are insufficient to deliver sustained gender parity at scale. Regulatory frameworks can strengthen accountability by mandating gender-disaggregated reporting across the employee lifecycle – covering hiring, retention, pay, progression, and leadership – paired with time-bound action plans where persistent gaps are identified. The objective is not compliance for its own sake, but to embed DEI within core organisational decision-making and workforce planning.
Effective disclosure regimes must be outcome-oriented, independently audited, and comparable across firms and sectors to avoid superficial reporting. When designed well, such disclosures also generate credible evidence on workforce dynamics, reinforcing the business case for inclusion and encouraging employer buy-in rather than resistance.
To prevent excessive administrative burden – particularly for MSMEs – regulation should allow phased implementation, calibrated thresholds, and standardised digital reporting templates. Mandates should be complemented by capacity-building measures, such as training on gender-responsive management and mandatory DEI awareness at senior levels, to ensure that disclosures translate into institutional change rather than box-ticking. Regulation, in this sense, acts as an enabling architecture – nudging firms from voluntary intent toward sustained practice.
The report cites good practices such as flexible work models, childcare support, and returnship programmes. How should public policy complement these employer-led initiatives to make work–life integration solutions scalable and equitable across sectors and firm sizes in India?
Employer-led practices such as flexible work, childcare support, and returnship programmes are important but inherently uneven in coverage – often bypassing MSMEs and informal workplaces where a large share of women are employed. Public policy must therefore provide shared institutional scaffolding to scale these solutions equitably across sectors and firm sizes.
Childcare illustrates this clearly. Current legal frameworks place responsibility largely on individual employers, limiting reach. Policy can expand access through shared childcare infrastructure – such as cluster-based crèches and local-body–led models – supported by targeted fiscal incentives in sectors with high female employment. This shifts childcare from a firm-level burden to a collective investment in productivity and labour-force stability.
Similarly, public funding for return-to-work, upskilling, and reskilling programmes can complement employer-led returnships by de-risking women’s labour market re-entry, particularly after caregiving breaks.
Finally, social-protection systems under the new labour codes need to work together, so that workers do not lose benefits when they change jobs, contracts, or locations. Reducing exclusion errors and ensuring that health coverage – especially under PMJAY – can be carried across employers and states is essential to providing continuous protection, particularly for women with non-linear work trajectories. Together, these measures align work–life integration with labour-market mobility rather than treating it as a discretionary, employer-specific benefit.
Author:
Views are personal.