Abstract:  According to NASSCOM data, women make up 35% of India’s tech workforce, a number that companies are working towards increasing through a host of initiatives.

The new-age companies have been on the move of becoming more inclusive and moving the needle on diverse things. The war of talent continues and the focus of these companies is not just on hiring more women in tech and product roles, but also on working towards building a more equitable culture.

According to NASSCOM’s Diversity and Inclusion Summit data, women make up 35 percent of the total industry workforce.

Tech figure companies like Wakefit, Urban Company, Mpower Financing, EnKash, and Simplilearn are looking to increase through a host of initiatives.

A task force was formed by Urban Company last month to advocate for representation, community building, and sensitizing hiring managers, as well as to work regularly with the company’s leadership on proactive steps to improve female representation.

“Our business represents a diverse marketplace and hence, we can attract diverse talent. Our focus is more on the retention part – through driving success stories of women leaders in tech and product roles, giving access to role models, and building structured career development plans for female talent,” said Neha Mathur, Urban Company’s Senior VP of people success, to ET.

Wakefit, based in Bengaluru, has a quarter of its tech team comprised of women, and the company is working to make that number half. Company leaders have been proactively requesting talent acquisition teams to focus on a 50-50 ratio while sourcing candidates, in a bid to recruit more woman technologists, said director and cofounder Chaitanya Ramalingegowda.

As a result, the company is bringing in women who have been on career breaks and letting them fit back into the workforce with roles such as quality assurance, UI/UX testing, and conducting training for product teams where they can work on their own pace. These women will then be hired full-time in tech and product roles, said Naveen Bindal, co-founder of the Mumbai-based startup.