India Inc must stand by DEI: It’s both a social and business imperative
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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Among Donald Trump’s first acts as US President was to put all government staff working on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) on administrative leave before shutting down federal programmes. Even before Trump put his pen to this executive order, deeming DEI “dangerous, demeaning and immoral," a bunch of CXOs had declared their disdain, terming it “racist", “anti-American" and “illegal." With brave exceptions, America Inc seems to have turned against DEI in an instant, as if earlier efforts to address the under-representation of gender, ethnic and other identities were a farce.
DEI initiatives in the US got a push after the 2020 killing of George Floyd by cops, though inclusion has been pursued in some form since the 1960s’ Civil Rights Act. Diversity is about embracing differences, while equity relates to treating everyone fairly and offering equal opportunity, and inclusion calls for an atmosphere where all folks feel welcome. The overarching idea is to have people of varying backgrounds and life experiences contribute.
Affirmative action to that end goes by the rationale that a cross-section of society at every level—its most powerful and best-paid included—must reflect the overall population’s diversity. Over the past half decade, companies around the world had doubled down on DEI. Yet, today, as wealthy corporate leaders in the US such as Elon Musk and Bill Ackman deride diversity hiring, and businesses like Walmart and John Deere roll back initiatives, it appears that DEI was largely about optics more than conviction.
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