Are we still fighting for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusivity?

Corporate culture does not operate in isolation. People in the corporates are not programmable and pre-designed humans who have come from another world. These individuals have emanated from within the society, and its culture. They have been nurtured by external forces of the social environment. Thus, diversity, inclusion and equity in the workplace are not problems, but rather a result of the trailing social process going on in our culture.

Sudha Murthy, an educator, writer, and the chairperson of Infosys Foundation, in one of her books “Three Thousand Stitches”, talks about her life nuances and her struggle with the challenges of gender stereotypes in her engineering days. Back in 1968, she was the only girl in her engineering college. Her decision was perceived as that of mutinying the social laws. Fast-forwarding to 2022, when it comes to hot topics like diversity and Inclusion (D&I), corporates are proactive in accentuating the fact that they have diversity in job roles. However, how inclusive are these diversified job roles? Genuine inclusion of people of various casts, other genders, and cultures is still a far cry. Our society has pellucidly attached stereotypical personas to every niche. For example, women associated with sports are coined under the term ‘non-feminine’. In corporate, people of lower castes, even after being hired are made to feel less knowledgeable. Sexploitation, disability discrimination, age discrimination, pregnancy, and status as a single parent are all social inclusivity and equity issues scarring our diversified fraternity.

Secondly, the inclusion of the LGBTQ community is a blazing topic in every sphere. In countries like India, this process is still in its baby steps. The recent case of Adam Harry, a 23-year-old transgender caught everyone’s attention. He was denied the opportunity of getting a commercial pilot’s license because of a discrepancy in his birth gender and his identified gender. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation declared him unfit to fly a commercial plane as he was on gender transition hormones and was diagnosed with gender dysphoria. Interestingly, other countries allow transgender pilots to fly planes. According to National Human Rights Commission India, 96% of transgenders are denied jobs. Be it subsidies, banking transactions, or getting an ID card, such simple things are not so simple for transgenders. As mentioned earlier, organizations don’t operate in isolation. Acceptance in society, in general, will lead to acceptance in workplaces. According to the 2011 census, 60% of the transgenders in Kerala dropped out of school due to “non-inclusivity”. Such people then lack skills, and expertise in the job market and are thus unemployed. An inquisitive thing to note here is the futuristic role of HR in addressing such cases. Promotion of gender-neutral language, introducing LGBTQ terminology, sponsoring PRIDE events, and establishing proper harassment reporting methods are some critical areas, HR can delve in.

When the world is talking about diversity, inclusivity, and equity, we can’t overlook the paramount role of Artificial Intelligence. In a recent study, it was found that smartphone cameras are conceptualized and tailored in such a way that they only recognize and adjust according to the skin tone of fair people thus, marginalizing other skin tones. Leaping at the opportunity, Google has planned to devise an inclusive algorithm, capable of recognizing and adjusting according to all skin tones. Further, the amalgamation of AI with HR practices will help in the detection of language in job descriptions and job specifications that indicates preconceived notions about gender stereotypes, ethnicity, age, etc.

After diversity and inclusivity, a state of equity is achieved. More than a conscious step, equity is an outcome or result of diversity and inclusivity. The majority of organizations, sports, entertainment industry, etc ideate their policies based on equality rather than equity. However, equity is about distributing resources and extending opportunities in such a manner that equality is achieved. Diversity, inclusion, and equity are like the rungs of a ladder, you can only achieve the latter after you have achieved the previous. Thus, slow and gradual ‘inclusivity’ of ‘diversity’ will lead to ‘equity’.