In India, pandemic allows female graduates to return to work
Audio 02:30
In India, the generalization of teleworking allows many women to resume a professional life.
(Photo illustration) Xavier Arnau / Getty Images
By: Sébastien Farcis Follow
6 mins
In India, wives and new mothers usually take years off their careers to take care of their household.
But thanks to the generalization of teleworking, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, many can now carry out these two activities simultaneously.
Recruiters are therefore seeing an explosion of applications from thirty-something.
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Two years ago, Charu Reddy was on a professional rise in an international bank.
She then becomes pregnant, takes her maternity leave, but that is not enough.
As there are very few nurseries in India, she wants to stay close to her child.
“
I asked to work from home, but my employer didn't allow me, so I quit.
And I stopped for a year.
»She says.
But a change has since helped him return to work: confinement and the spread of telework.
“
I can now take care of family and work at the same time.
I go online in the morning, take care of my son behind, and come back to work.
I also live precious moments with my child, which I would have missed by going to the office.
"
In India, household and family chores are reserved for women.
And many of these workers therefore interrupt their careers for years after the first child.
As a result, only 21% of Indian women are considered active, one of the lowest rates in the world.
Twice as many applications in one year
However, the pandemic is reversing this trend: the Avtar agency, which promotes recruitments from diversity, found that the number of married women who applied had doubled over the past year. Saundarya Rajesh, founder and director of Avtar, is not surprised:
“Professional flexibility is the oxygen of a woman's career. You offer her this flexibility and at least 40% of Indian women will be able to save their careers. Until now, we have struggled to convince companies to set up telecommuting. But when the Covid happened, they changed drastically. It was fantastic.
"
New technology companies, which have adapted quickly, benefit the most from this new female workforce. Ritu Anand is Head of Diversity at Tata Consulting Services, one of the largest multinational companies in this sector in the world, with nearly 500,000 employees. “
Many of our employees are now applying abroad because they can work remotely. So I no longer have to ask if their families will move with them, or if they will need a nanny. Thanks to the pandemic, these personal questions, which hampered their professional development, have disappeared. And we just focus on the job,
”she explains.
This company plans to expand teleworking after the end of the pandemic.
Employees should only come to the office for 25% of their working time.
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