“Livelihood is such an essential part of one’s life. We found that many from the queer community are underemployed or unemployed. A transgender person with a degree does not get the same pay as a cisgender person,” shares Ramkrishna Sinha, co-founder of Pride Circle, that works towards the inclusion of LGBTI persons at the workplace.
Started in 2017 by Ramkrishna and Srini Ramaswamy, Pride Circle is organising a job fair exclusively for people from the LGBTI community as part of RISE (Reimagining Inclusion for Social Equity). The day-long event will be held on July 12 at The LaLiT Ashok in Bengaluru.
Working in the same space of Diversity and Inclusion (D&I), Ramkrishna and Srini kept bumping into each other at conferences, panel discussions and talks, and soon turned towards doing something actionable.
Ramkrishna, who works in an IT firm, says, “I am from the community. When we talked about LGBTI inclusion in the workplace, people did not understand what that meant. Those outside the community don’t know about the challenges, such as discrimination the community faces.”
Also, prior to the landmark judgement on Section 377 of the IPC, there was immense ignorance around the law, feels Ramkrishna.
“People did not know it only criminalises acts, not identities. You could still have support groups at workplaces and so on. We also realised that those who worked in D&I had no access to LGBTI people. That is when we thought of starting a forum and have monthly meet-ups where people working in different companies could come together and share their coming out stories, challenges and more. It started with empowering LGBTI people with data points, knowledge of what was happening in other companies, their practices and implementations.”
- The LGBTI Job Fair will see participation of companies such as The LaLiT, Accenture, HSBC, GE, Citrix and NestAway. RISE will also include a daylong conference with speakers Selisse Berry, founder and former CEO of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates, Prof MV Lee Badgett, professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Dr J Harrison who has been bringing queer theory into the tech space. Other speakers include activist Akkai Padmashali and Jayanagar MLA Sowmya Reddy. There will also be a paid leadership breakfast or lunch, where one can spend time with a changemaker, and LGBTI Marketplace, a platform to spotlight LGBTI-owned businesses. Register on thepridecircle.com/rise or email rise@thepridecircle.com. Call 9741116929 for details.
Srini, who has worked in HR for 20 years, says: “I have led D&I initiatives for various companies. In 2010-2012, it was difficult to have these conversations in my company because there was no access then. No precedent either because where would you go to understand what was happening in other companies or in the country? The only option was to call people and ask what they had implemented. It took us two to three years to build on that. Ramkrishhna struggled to set up the network in his company. I was setting up a strategy at an India and Asia Pacific level and the challenges were similar. Fast forward to four years later and the challenges remain the same.”
Since it was only a monthly meet-up at first, they also created a WhatsApp group. And, it became like a community where people could share their stories, pose questions and get answers, says Ramkrishna, who adds, “That is how we realised there is so more to be done.”
Subsequently, they started what was billed as India’s first mentoring programme targeted at the LGBTI community.
“Many feel they can either have a sexuality or a career. If I am an engineer and come out at work, people may just dismiss me as a ‘gay guy’ instead of focussing on the work I have done. All mentors were from the community and had done really well in their fields. So, the idea was that you can have both,” adds Ramkrishna.
They also organised a reverse mentoring programme which was targeted at business leaders so they could understand LGBTI challenges, perspectives, dreams and aspirations. When Pride Circle was started, it was attended by four members. Today, says Srini, it has grown to 600 members in 90 companies across India.
Companies too started getting back to them with questions about help with their policies, infrastructure and training. They also conducted sensitisation workshops. After which, companies invited people from the community to give talks, some of whom got paid.
Srini says, “That led to a demand for more jobs from the community. Companies too felt the next logical step was to hire people and sought talent.”
Coming to the job fair, it targets the entire spectrum, claims Ramkrishna. “We are looking at school dropouts to people with PhDs. The jobs include those in administration, security, kitchen and front desk, to IT, banking and finance.”
They claim to have received resumes from freshers to people with over 20 years of experience.
“In the resume database, the questions are built in such a way that it makes it clear that it is an LGBTI job fair. There is also a specific question on whether you are comfortable about being out at work. You have a choice of selecting that option. The candidate will be matched with an organisation based on that requirement.”
He also claims that the data is secure. Moreover, the fields regarding gender identity and expression are optional.
Ramkrishna says, “We wanted to add these fields as from the outside, the LGBTI community looks like one community but there are so many hues. We have made sure that no matter how you identify yourself, there is an option.”
