How many women work in India's tech sector? A scorecard check is here

The researchers of Open University (OU) in Milton Keynes recently produced the Women in IT Scorecard-India Spring Edition of the 2017 with the support of India’s leading IT trade association, National Association of Software and Services Companies - NASSCOM. Its objective is to improve the understanding of the make-up of women in the information technology sector in India. This was presented at the NASSCOM Diversity and Inclusion summit, 2017.

Information Technology is the most important economic sector in India which has a major contribution in strengthening our recent presence on the global stage. The IT-BPO industry has shown an exponential growth in the recent years and has unprecedented number young women professionals. It ranks pretty high on gender diversity maps with increasing numbers of women joining IT in India in comparison to the dwindling numbers in this segment in the Western world.

The report also states that India has higher number of women in senior management than in other BRIC countries.

The spring Scorecard-India is being led by Professor of Geography and Migration Parvati Raghuram, and its co-investigator is Dr Clem Herman (senior lecturer in computing and communications).

The project is based on Gender, Skilled Migration and IT funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). It discusses why the IT sector in India manages to attract and retain women in highly-skilled roles. It compares the experiences of women working in the IT sector in India and the United Kingdom. It tries to understand both the gender norms and the best practice in each country by gaining insights from migrant women and men who move between the two countries.

Parvati Raghuram said: “We are very pleased to be able to present the spring edition of the 2017 Women in IT Scorecard- India. Information Technology has become the flagship industry underlying India’s recent presence on the global stage. Perhaps surprisingly, what is also notable is the relatively high and increasing numbers of women in IT in India in comparison to the small and falling numbers of women in this sector in the Western world.”

Further she added “This report, for the first time, provides some of the statistics behind this pattern. It provides data on women’s employment patterns and leadership pathways within the India industry and situates it in a global context. It lays the foundation for understanding the similarities and differences between women’s participation in the IT sector in India and the UK.”