With more women in top positions at leading domestic banks, ICICI Bank Executive Director K. Ramkumar, who is also responsible for its human resources functions , feels the Government and corporations need to find ways to get more women into the workforce. Ramkumar spoke to Business Line on ways to ensure that the drop-out rate of women at mid-level positions is minimised. This, he said, can be done with better child care, paediatric facilities and bringing about a change in the mindset of people. Excerpts :
Now that women are heading top posts of leading banks, what has changed?
They were extremely competent women who found themselves at a particular place at a certain point in time and it is just that they have come together and have gone to the CEO level right now . The front-end jobs in banks are slightly different from front-end jobs in the FMCGand other industries. Branch banking is the front-end job or customer-facing job in a bank. So, it becomes that much easier for women to go to the top in the banking industry because a large portion of the jobs are available for women. It is far better than other places where women form only 15 per cent of the workforce.
What policies have helped women at ICICI reach the top?
None, I will say, because it will belittle women who have come up. Women have come up not because I can say there is an extended maternity leave, so women can be away from their jobs for 2 years with one year of paid leave. I can say that we allow mothers who have children in class 10 and 12 to take off during January-March to teach their children. But that is not the reason why some of our women have come up. The single biggest reason is the mindset of people like Narayanan Vaghul and K. V. Kamath who said women will not be stereotyped in my bank. Every job in the bank is a job available for women and nobody can prohibit a woman from doing any job if she wants to do it. In ICICI, it is taboo if someone says, ‘I do not want a lady for this particular job or I do not want a lady in my team’, then that person will be sacked.
We have seen a lot of women opt out at mid-level positions. What is the reason?
I have always maintained there are 3 reasons for drop-outs. First, there is very poor childcare facility in India; second, poor paediatric care facility and third, unlike in the past, grandmothers no more baby-sit their grandchildren. These are the three main problems plaguing us right now. Companies need to be a little (more) considerate while transferring women. Also, the problem with the big metros is the commute. For every 9 hours on the job, employees roughly travel 3 to 4 hours, and will be out of their home for 12 to 13 hours. So, we have to try and see as far as possible that we ensure lesser commute.
What do you think is needed to produce more women leaders?
About 50 per cent of the problem is at home, which cannot be resolved by corporations. About 2 or 3 out of hundred women come back after opting out. The fundamental thing is that India has to invest in childcare and paediatric facilities because companies cannot do this. For example, I have 3,000 offices, I cannot have 3,000 crèches. I believe the government and companies have to get together to ensure more women do not opt out.
Will having reservations for women on the company’s board help?
It cannot work. If there aren’t enough women who have bubbled up after 10 or 15 years of starting to work, and there isn’t enough catchment at the senior level, then how will reservation work? The problem is how to get more women at the entry stage and get a greater percentage of them go on to the senior level by stopping them from opting out at mid-level — at around 28-35 years of age.