Women set to grab half of all IT jobs in India by 2010

Bangalore: India's booming IT and IT-enabled services industry is a favourite destination of job-seeking women, whose employment in the industry is set to rise dramatically to 45 per cent in 2010 from the current 30 per cent, an industry survey said.

A survey by National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), the representative organisation of the Indian software firms, says this is due to the inclusive human resource policies of Indian IT firms, which recruit, train, retain and promote women employees as a strategic business plan.

"As the IT-ITeS sector moves up the value chain, more women are joining the industry. The male-female ratio is expected to improve to 65:35 by this year-end from 76:24 in 2005," outgoing Nasscom President Kiran Karnik said on Wednesday.

"Even as the industry braces up to achieve this healthy gender ratio, the job trend indicates more and more educated young women, including housewives, are joining the industry due to its progressive and flexible HR policies," he added.

"For empowering the women workforce and creating conducive environment to grow equally at their workplace, we have commissioned Indian Institute of Management at Ahmedabad (IIM-A) to conduct a fresh study on the status of women employees in the IT industry and avenues for their growth in the value chain," Karnik told about 300 women delegates participating in the Nasscom-IT Women Leadership Summit 2007.

The study, expected to be completed in the next five-six weeks, will focus on additional measures to be taken by the industry to empower women employees and create opportunities to absorb more of them increasingly.

"It is a survey of what the IT industry does and can do more in terms of attitudes, perception and best practices for an inclusive growth. Women are a key and vital part of a progressive industry, which promotes gender diversity and empowerment," Karnik pointed out.

The study will also quiz women employees across the industry to ascertain their assessment of the existing HR policies, work conditions and workload, how sensitive their male counterparts were towards them, and scope for professional advancement in their respective organisations.