Teena Likhari, an operations manager at WNS Global Services, working from home in Gurgaon, Haryana, India, on November 20 2020. Picture: BLOOMBERG/ANINDITO MUKHERJEEThe coronavirus pandemic has hit women worldwide with job losses and closures of childcare centres. Yet a surprising bright spot is emerging: India’s $200bn tech services industry, where new rules are expected to provide female workers with a broad swathe of flexible work arrangements and fresh employment opportunities.
Likhari is one of the early beneficiaries of India’s decision to lift decades-old restrictions on remote work in back-office firms because of the pandemic. The tech services industry — one of the country’s most important financially — can now allow employees to shift from traditional offices to work-from-anywhere arrangements, permanently if needed. Indian women, who have often had to sacrifice for their husbands’ careers or other commitments at home, have much to gain from the policy change.
Local outsourcers Tata Consultancy Services and WNS offer everything from data analytics to support on financial and accounting processes to international clients. A huge segment of working women in India, particularly the less privileged, have faced many of the same problems that have beset their global counterparts during the pandemic as they’ve had to juggle childcare, online schooling and office work from home, forcing some to drop out. Millions of female rural workers and daily wage earners lost jobs because they can’t work from home.
“Given time and location flexibility, less women will quit after having children,” said NG Subramaniam, COO of Tata Consultancy, Asia’s largest outsourcer with $22bn in annual revenue. “More women will stay in the workforce, more will reach senior leadership levels.” “There is so much talent in smaller cities that has been untapped so far,” said Madhavi Lall, head of HR at Deutsche Bank India. “Flexible work arrangements would certainly bring that talent to the fore, especially women who find it difficult to migrate or shift their base.”
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