DEI defence: How to promote diversity and prevent a backlash

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Employment among working-age women in urban India has increased by around 10 percentage points over the past six years. Now approaching the 30% mark, it still remains relatively low compared to our peer countries and has considerable scope for improvement.

As educated urban women increasingly take up formal high-skilled jobs, does India risk fuelling the same diversity backlash in the future that the United States and other Western nations have seen? Will corporate policies designed to prevent discrimination and create inclusive environments for marginalized groups end up being discriminatory, either in perception or in reality? If yes, what can be done to avoid it? It is widely known that quality job creation in India has lagged behind the supply of young educated job-seekers. In 2023-24, based on India’s periodic labour survey data, 23% of young men (20-29 years) with graduate-level education were unemployed in urban India. The rate was even higher for their female counterparts, at nearly 32%.

It is often said that a significant proportion of our educated youth are not employable due to a lack of relevant skills. This is an outcome of our flawed education system that fails to prepare young people for jobs. From the perspective of youth, they naturally aspire to better quality jobs as they obtain higher educational qualifications from government-accredited institutions.

Remember, education has been presented to them as a means to a better life. There is a strong norm of a male breadwinner in India. While educated unemployment among young men is higher, almost all men (97%) in the prime family-supporting age group of 30-to-54 are in paid work.