Need HR policy change to help enterprising women

There is a need to bring changes in the human resource policy to encourage women to be more enterprising, said Shruti Shibulal, CEO, Tamara Hotels and Resorts.

She was one of the four-member panellist talking on the topic ‘Women in Sustainability’ at the 15th edition of T N Khoshoo Memorial award and lecture on Monday.

It is sad that while the pass out the ratio of men and women from colleges is 50:50, only 20% of women are in the workforce. Thus there is a need to empower them, she said and added that the hospitality sector was gradually moving towards this.

Another panellist, Pronita Saxena, Founder and CEO, Citizengage said it is difficult for women to get capital for their ventures. Women are laughed at when they approach investment institutions. Also, they are assumed to have limited engineering and mechanical knowledge.

Women must be confident and should know that they can do everything, she added.

Harini Nagendra, Professor of Sustainability, Azim Premji University, pointed out that women were addressing many urban environmental sustainability issues.

It has been noticed that in urban local groups, while there are only two to three men in the team, women are the one holding the fort and pressing the government for improvement, which is an encouraging step, Harini added.

Rajeswari S Raina was presented the T N Khoshoo Memorial Award. She is a professor at Shiv Nadar University’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of International Relations and Governance Studies. She is also the associate director of the University’s Centre for Public Affairs and Critical Theory.

Rajeswari emphasised that women were needed in sustainability science, and there was a need where 'science makes sense together’ with policymakers, politicians, practitioners, consumers and not just researchers.