LGBTQ inclusion to slowly get on track

KOLKATA: Nearly a month into the Supreme Court’s landmark judgment decriminalising consensual adult gay sex, there are clear indications that corridors of India Inc. are becoming more welcoming for LGBTQ people. But HR experts, gay rights activists and academics say it will take years for true inclusivity to happen on this front, particularly in traditional Indian organisations.

“With the amount of talk around the issue triggered by the judgment, a lot more people will now feel safer coming out, whether it’s in the workplace or in the community,” said Sarika Bhattacharyya, CEO at diversity consultancy BD Foundation.

However, while decriminalisation has now happened, there are a lot of peripherals and legal issues that have not been taken care of, be it adoption policies, maternity policies, inheritance of property, or any other legal issue, she said. “That’s still a battle,” Bhattacharyya said. “That journey will take long.”


What the ruling has done is to get conversations rolling and fuel openness around LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer) issues.

Two recent TimesJobs surveys—one before the September 6 Supreme Court order that effectively voided Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, and the other after the ruling— indicate that the number of employees who feel that their companies have become more open to issues around different sexual orientations and about recruiting openly LGBTQ people has increased significantly post the ruling. And, a greater percentage of the 2,000 employees who took part in the survey post-ruling believe expressing their sexual orientation/cultural values openly at the workplace would not hamper their career growth.

“I think the survey shows changes,” said Neharika Vohra, professor, organisational behaviour at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. “How comfortable will LGBTQ employees be to come out will also depend on their home situation and societal issues. However, the fear will be less,” she said.

Vohra expects many companies to now openly hire LGBTQ people. “I think the change will be faster than usual,” she said. Industry insiders said multinationals would continue to lead the drive while Indian companies, barring a few like Godrej, would be slower to bring in inclusivity on this front.

“While multinationals are far more open to proactively hiring LGBTQ employees, traditional Indian companies will take a while to adopt it in the same way,” HR head of an Indian conglomerate said. “But after the judgment there will now gradually be a change given that it is now supported from a legal perspective.”

Bhattacharyya of BD Foundation said the challenge is that the younger generation is far more open about these issues than the slightly older generation that mostly man middle and senior management. “And the influence makers are mostly from the latter,” she said.

Pallav Patankar, an LGBTQ community member, said the younger generation in colleges and schools today are quite blasé about sexuality and, over a period of time, this will pervade into the corporate space in the same way. Right now the situation isn’t so easy because many haven’t opened up to the idea of alternate sexuality, he said.

To make meaningful changes in the workplace area, the nuances of the judgment need to be pushed with the ministry of labour and National Human Rights Commission, and be discussed with employee unions and organisations, said Patankar, former director of programmes at Humsafar Trust, a Mumbai-based NGO that promotes LGBTQ rights.

“We have just drawn up a roadmap with the Humsafar Trust,” he said. “We plan to approach industry bodies like Ficci, Assocham, etc. and go and do gender sensitisation workshops, so they can influence policy decisions. It opens an avenue to encourage sensitisation, have conversations,” said Patankar.

Corporates, which were sitting on the fence, not being able to openly say that they are pro-LGBTQ, are now reaching out and trying to understand what other organisations are doing.

BD Foundation is conducting research on best case studies and best practices on LGBTQ inclusion and plans to share it with organisations to implement in areas like policy framework and leaves. Bhattacharyya said it currently gets one or two calls a week from companies and gives one-hour sessions on inclusion pro-bono.

Experts said that in today’s business environment, people want to work in organisations that are inclusive. And in the war for talent, these are the ones that have an edge. There is a business case for more inclusion as it brings in diversity, enhancing a better working environment leading to better productivity.

“There are organisations with LGBT networks but those have just a handful of people,” said Anuranjita Kumar, MD and HR head, international hubs, The Royal Bank of Scotland, which has policies in place for LGBTQ inclusion. “By doing sensitisation, hiring more people who are secure in their skin to talk about sexual preferences, that will take away the stigma associated with homosexuality. But it will take time,” she said.

“Mindset change is the problem in India. Now the govt has put its stamp of approval, that has to translate into action and we as corporates are responsible for making that happen,” Kumar said.