One of the first things that Nirmala Menon, founder-CEO of Interweave Consulting brings to fore in her discussions on gender inclusion in organizations, is Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. She points out that the law does not criminalise being gay, it criminalises sex that is against the order of nature (which merits another large discussion).
“Sex is something private. The law doesn’t say anything about your identity, it only talks of a sexual act that is against the order of nature. What is the order of nature? That is questionable. Nobody is going to get caught in such an act in office,” explains Nirmala, who was one of the speakers at the Out and Equal LGBTQ India Forum, an LGBTQ workplace inclusion conference, that recently took place at The LaLiT Ashok Hotel.
Interweave Consulting, which offers diversity and inclusion consulting services, works in the space of diversity management, safe workplaces, women leadership development, and innovations in inclusion. One of their areas of focus, since 2015, has been gender spectrum inclusion.
“This is still in the early stages in India. Companies have just started working on this. Many people still think that sexuality is a choice, that people choose to be gender queer and so have to deal with the pain that comes with it. We tell them that this is not a lifestyle statement that people make, it is something that they can’t help. When you explain this and take them through the pain of what it is like to be closeted, they seem to get it. That’s what we found.”
Nirmala points out that there is an economic cost to not being inclusive. “The economic cost comes from multiple ways. In a knowledge economy, being your whole self and being authentic is valuable and important for you to be able to think. If I am constantly hiding myself or trying to put up a façade, I am not being myself, which means I am not giving my best productivity. There is a cost to that.”
Another important factor that organizations need to keep in mind, she adds, is the millennial generation. “If you say you are not inclusive of a particular community, you are not an attractive employer for them. It also poses a challenge for global organizations in terms of talent mobility. If an employee in another country is gay and married and needs to move to India on an assignment, as a country and as a company are you providing that safety? You don’t want to be litigating over discrimination, if two employees are being treated differently because of their sexuality. These are sensitive issues that companies need to look at,” says Nirmala.
“Businesses are strong stakeholders and they can make some policy changes as well. That is what we are trying to do, we are trying to get business leaders to come together to collaborate and ensure that this is done. Also by saying that you are inclusive of LGBT, you are announcing to the world that you are good with other things such as cultural diversity.”
Though a few companies have already begun working towards gender inclusivity, offering support for sex reassignment surgeries and hormone treatments or partner and relocation benefits, changing mindsets is still the biggest challenge that Interweave faces, observes Nirmala.
“Today the right thing to say is that you are inclusive. However that is not enough, it is really about behaviour in the workspace, what the lived experience of an organization is and how people in the organization feel. Inclusion is about being valued and supported and that is hard to measure.”
Nirmala says her goal is to create a society that is inclusive of all people. “That is the social impact that we are after. Exclusion has never worked, almost all of the world’s problems have come from intolerance and exclusion, so it also has a global message.”
