Casualties of the juggling act : Women and their Talent in the Software Industry

The Indian software industry finds in its ranks, one of the most talented and smartest women that the country has to offer. However, the climb for all such women is arduous with severe sacrifices involved in the path. More often than not, they find themselves in positions of frustration given the social conservatism that encompasses the business world and the society at large

Introduction: The Indian society is a patriarchal society with clear set of rules defined for the roles that men and women have to play. Men have been the bread winners while the onus of the well being of the family lies with the women. This was the status quo, until the last phase of the 20th century where women, seriously, started challenging men in their positions of power.  Its not been an easy ride for even their western counterparts either. Debora Spar in her article "When Mommy track leads to a dead end" highlights the concerns of the career track known as "the career secondary" or the mommy track for women[1]. As she points  for women returning after a prolonged leave due to maternity or family issues, "Positions disappear; salaries plummet; professional relationships grow stale. And at the end of the day, only 40  percent of women who try to return to full-time professional jobs actually manage to do so. The rest settle into early retirement, or slower paced, lower-ranked jobs." The "career primary" women,however, behaved like men and were most likely remain single or childless. The onus of success in the business world lies with these women.
Coming back home, in a landmark study of its kind ,Prof.  Vasanthi Srinivasan from IIIM Bangalore pointed out the talent concerns of women employed in the Indian IT Industry in her work "THE LEAKY BUCKET OF FEMALE TALENT IN THE INDIAN IT INDUSTRY" along with her student Monisha Nakra. In this work, she argues over three factors that define career persistence for Indian women:
a) Self: the need of a career, marriage & motherhood importance
b)Social: Role models, Family support, Marriage pressure and work-family conflict
c) Structural: Mentors at workplace,child care, networking and stigmas
 The study agreed to what Debora Spar had already concluded. The Indians and their Western counterparts shared the same view on career tracks for women.
The study, however, points no guidelines to men. Often in workplaces, women in marriages or with children are frowned upon to take challenging roles. Also, marriage & children make it impossible for women to work in shifts. Long leaves of maternity add to the difficulties in acceptance for challenging roles. Family concerns like change of job location of husband add to the woes. Some of the brilliant women I have encountered had their careers wither away because of this one reason.With respect to children, behind doors, women have told me of the following rules:
a) Rule of one: Avoid taking challenging roles
b) Rule of two: End of career
Putting a child into creches is a stigma in Indian society for which thee  women sacrifice their career. As seen, the juggling act of family and career exhausts all the reserve of Indian women making it difficult for them to achieve their talent potentials.

Solution: There is a dire need to address this leaky bucket. Much of the onus has to fall on the family and the men involved in the women's life. There needs to be a new vocabulary needed by men to endear them to this cause.Men should or make provisions for :
a) Minimum break in a women's career due to family issues/maternity
b) Sabbatical for child care for a period of time
c) Help in day to day running of the family
d) Respect the option if the woman does not want to have children
Women should realize that they have a 40% chance of being where they were after  a career break. Hence, they in turn, need to identify these breaks very early. In certain cases, its not possible and they need to sacrifice their career, they should counsel/get counseled on such issues. These periods could be used to re-skill themselves.  Workplaces should, in turn, provide child care facilities in their vicinity. This is, in my opinion, easier said than done. However, the attempts need to be made by larger companies first. Picking up challenging roles in early part of life is also a good option. The labour laws have been refined for the IT/ITES sector. These should be taken into account while planning.
The contribution of women in a fast growing country like India has been fractional in terms of roles in the industry. The eminent scientist, Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar, has opined as a "women centric" society as one of the pillars for the development of Indian society[3]. The vision can be bought to its fruition only if juggling act stops and women are able to give serious justice to the talents they possess.

References:
[1] Debora Spar, http://www.thedailybeast.com/witw/articles/2013/09/27/debora-spar-s-wonder-women-career-on-ramps-off-ramps-u-turns-and-dead-ends.html
[2] Vasanthi Srinivisan and M. Nakra," The Leaky Bucket of Female Talent in the Indian IT Industry". http://tejas.iimb.ac.in/articles/90.php.
[3] R. Mashelkar,"Reinventing India", pp.26.

The image is taken from the article, "http://maryandmoney.com/lifestyle/the-juggling-act/". for educational purposes only.

The mistrust of Kashmir

One of the compounding problems that current incumbent PM of India,Narendra Modi, must face is his policy regarding Kashmir. Forever, a contentious issue, India has always maintained a stand of it being an internal dispute while Pakistan has always called it an international dispute. Between these lines, is the true problem, the faith of the Kashmiri people has been played with.

History:
A perspective of Kashmir's history is very important.Having a Hindu and Buddhist past, the true freedom of the Kashmir was killed by the invasion of Mughals in 1540. Akbar is still a hated figure in Kashmir as he established 167 years of Mughal rule. It was then followed by the Durrani's and the Sikh rule.It was not until that the Dogra ruler Gulab Singh, through treachery, in 1846 from the British rule bought Kashmir,that the conundrum of Kashmir started. A Hindu ruler over a Muslim majority was established. Not to say, it was an oppressive rule.  With the freedom from British, then then ruler of the state, Hari Singh, was of the view of staying independent from both the dominions of India and Pakistan. However, the tribal attacks engineered by Pakistan in 1947, forced his hand to seek the help of India. India,promptly, pointed out that Kashmir was a foreign land and Hari Singh,then signed the Instrument of Accession with India. The state was in turmoil and as with the accession rules at that time, a plebiscite of people was not carried. Article 370 was borne out of this and an interim Government was formed to form the constution for the State with the plebiscite pending. Pandit Nehru's and Sardar Patel's affirmed pledges on plebiscite are attached. Violence erupted in the valley in late 1980's and it was a tale of brutal military assault, making Kashmir a military garrison which continues till the day. The flight of the Kashmiri Pandits during this period, exacerbated what was already a delicate situation.

Current Situation and Problems:
Kashmir has been a military camp for the past 35 years. Successive state govts were not strong enough(most of the elections were rigged!) and have diluted Article 370. The people of Kashmir mistrust their politicians. There are severe human right violations and as such the people of Kashmir severely mistrust the Government of India. In addition, mistrust between the communities is rampant. The atmosphere is vitiated further with instances such as continuous demands of abrogation of Article 370 and border skirmishes.

Solution:
Kashmir is a political problem and cannot be solved by military occupation. Also, its not as much as a geography issue as much as it is about of the faith of the Kashmiri people. Any solution has to involve the faith of the people and they should be the bedrock of this solution. So, any solution should involve the political people who the Kashmiri people deem as their true representatives. One of the best things the earlier PM did was to facilitate a peace accord with President Musharraf in 2006. President Musharraf had put up a four point plan which was realistic. The plan was:
[1] Kashmir should have the same borders but people be allowed to move freely across the region;[2] The region should have self-governance or autonomy but not independence; [3] Troops should be withdrawn from the region in a phased manner; and [4] a joint mechanism comprising representatives from India, Pakistan and Kashmir be set up to supervise the implementation of such a roadmap for Kashmir.

If this is agreed by the representatives of the Kashmiri people, this could go a long way in resolving a historic issue.

Disclaimer: All errors regarding facts are attributed to the original post.

(a) Vallabhbhai Patel's assertion

(b) Pandit Nehru's pledge

An eulogy on joy of festivals

Its time we started realising that there needs to be an epitaph for enjoying Indian festivals. The dangerous and ominous trends are there for everybody to see. First and foremost, I am not saying that we do not enjoy. What I want to point out, the fun quotient is becoming less and less.
  Indian Festivals are a big family affair. Its one of the rare occasions where we get to meet everybody from our family and close friends. Catch up on the gossip and the general happenings. Add to it the colors and the sparkles of festivals and you get a complete 360 degree view of what being an Indian means. Not long ago, as a kid, we used to make our own festival cards. Occasionally, help our mothers and grandmothers with sweets and of course, munch half of them.  And these festivals meant business as well. We would be setting up our own stalls of crackers and asking friends to look after them. It also meant a lot of cleaning and doing a lot of shopping. We used to go to these saree shops where my aunts would get themselves draped in these zillions and colors. Under the careful eyes of the elders, we sang, dance and enacted plays on stage. The world was a big place then. Meeting people in person was very exciting.
The present looks so impoverished. The personal touch has diminished, if not gone completely. There are lesser people to meet and more of excuses. The cooking is now purchases off the shelf and the stalls of crackers have slowly disappeared. Cards are now replaced by messages(colorful though!) to people unknown on Facebook walls and other social media. Talking is replaced by chatting to people on the net or making phone calls. Recently, I met a friend after a long time. There was so much to talk about.  and both of us were aware that we had limited time. I can only say that we managed to barely scrap the surface of all the topics.
Progress is also a persuasion to change of lifestyle. As humans, we give importance to efficiency and as such customs will naturally wither away. With the future more gadgetized and  uncertain, the communication is likely to drop  in value. As time would be precious, the meeting methods would change. Probably, in a coming few years, we would be meeting virtually inside each others houses. Its also exciting times as many things could be accomplished within a given small time frame. Ideas would be stored and calibrated and not forgotten. However, the relation of technology, culture and lifestyle would definitely be non linear. To ask in the end, I am sure I would be making videos of what I enjoy now. Maybe, it will be a treat to watch in the years to come.

Happy Dussehra to All !