A culture of social conservatism in India has engendered a network of relationships upheld by the bourgeois social order, one of the most significant among which is a conservative attitude towards sexual relations. On September 06, 2018, the Supreme Court of India ruled that the application of the colonial Section 377 to consensual homosexual sex between adults was unconstitutional. This hearing by the Supreme Court with regard to Section 377 has triggered a conversation around sexuality and inclusivity in the workplace. Despite being inundated with homophobia-deriding conversations, people continue to be stigmatised in the country. According to a World Bank study, India loses up to 1.7% of GDP due to homophobia. One of the most eye-opening instances was when in personal testimony, an ex-employee of Tech Mahindra, Gaurav Probir Pramanik, took to Twitter to express grievances against homophobic discrimination inflicted on him during his stay at the organisation. “As promised, I wrote an email to my then boss at a Mahindra company I used to work with. She was a bigot and I suffered in her hands, I hence called her out,” wrote Gaurav in a tweet and attached the contents of the e-mail he had sent her.
Pride Circle’s Srini Ramaswamy and Ramkrishna Sinha who are award-winning diversity and inclusion professionals, noticed this gap and on July 12 last year, they organised the first edition of RISE (Reimagining Inclusion for Social Equity), India’s first LGBTQIA+ job fair. A bold and thoughtful initiative undertaken in order to build a community of individuals committed to inculcating a culture of LGBTQ inclusion at the workplace, RISE, in its first edition was able to provide job offers to 43 people belonging to the LGBTQ community. 41 among whom were given jobs in the technological sector, the total combined annual income amounting to a whopping 3.9 crore rupees. Following the success of the first round of RISE, Pride Circle is organising a second round this year on February 22 at The LaLiT, New Delhi.
RISE, which is a one-of-a-kind platform for the LGBTQIA+ community, has three elements working in synergy to truly impact LGBTQ lives – conference, job fair, marketplace. The conference brings the changemakers and thought leaders from around the world – to provide an enlightening, engaging and empowering experience for all attendees. With 35 speakers on a variety of topics from workplace policies, embassy panel of inclusive societies, parent panel of raising a child with love, understanding the transgender umbrella etc, this is being pegged as the biggest ‘Brain Spa’ is Asia on LGBTQIA+ inclusion. Interestingly, one of the pioneers of LGBTQIA+ inclusion in workspaces, Gaurav Pramanik will also share his story and ideas at this conference.
The second leg of the event is the job fair which is all about walking the talk. It’s an opportunity for inclusive companies to meet LGBTQ talent, enabling skill-based hiring and outreach to the untapped talent pool. As part of their affirmative action to inclusion impacting livelihood, RISE had been organizing skill-building workshops in Delhi from November onwards, teaching them how to answer interview questions, negotiate with employers etc. The training imparted to them was free of cost. What’s more important is that the trainers belonged to the recruiting companies. This not only added to the advantage of the participants but also helped the recruiters understand the participants’ expectations. People who got jobs last year also trained the subsequent batch by provided their own experience through Facebook live events. They spoke about their own experience and personal challenges.
The third leg is the Marketplace which enables LGBTQ-owned businesses to scale and grow by providing them with a platform for visibility, the opportunity for sale, financial literacy workshop, and unique chance to pitch their business to corporates, through the Supplier Diversity Program.
Watch these videos to know more about RISE.
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