India Inclusive

Two years after a historic judgment by the supreme Court, companies are realising that the case for LGBTQ+ inclusion is stronger than ever, even as tackling under-representation, stereotypes and biases remains a work in progress

- DIVYA J SHEKHAR

It was August 2018, a month before the Supreme Court (SC) scrapped Section 377, a colonial-era ban on gay sex. Harsha Hayathi went up on stage at an inclusion seminar organised by her financial services company ANZ in Bengaluru, and mustering all the courage she could, said, “I am Hayathi. Though I was not assigned female at birth, I identify as a woman. Some women have short hair, I am that woman. Some women have husky voices, I am that woman. Some women have xy chromosomes, I am that woman. Some women cannot give birth, I am that woman. Even if you accept me or not, I am a woman.” For the first time in her professional career, Hayathi had brought her full self to work.

Before that, the 31-year-old transwoman had to change seven jobs in seven years because of fear, discrimination, ill health and gender dysphoria [a conflict between a person’s physical gender and gender with which they identify]. While she finally found acceptance through supportive colleagues and a robust policy framework at her current company where she works as a technical analyst, Hayathi believes that queer inclusion in India Inc is a half-written story.

“Most companies still seem to be hiring transgender people just for the sake of it, to tick boxes, without fully understanding what it means to be us or the challenges we face,” she says. According to her, organisations can only claim to be truly inclusive when everyone, right from business leaders to the cafeteria staff, are sensitised; only when they create supportive infrastructure from comprehensive health benefits to all-gender restrooms that help queer individuals feel secure and be themselves.