THE RISE OF WOMEN ENGINEERS

Large Indian firms are hiring more women engineers in a push for diversity. But overcoming societal and educational biases is key.

- ARNIKA THAKUR

KONERU BHAVANI joined L&T in 1993 as its first woman engineer graduate trainee. The 53-year-old civil engineer clearly remembers her first day at work. “Everybody was asking the same question — how did you come here? That’s when I realised I was the first woman engineer to join the company. There were no policies restricting women. It was an unwritten rule,” K. Bhavani tells Fortune India, alluding to an acute shortage of women engineers at some of India’s largest construction, engineering and mining firms at the time as the job was considered only for men. K. Bhavani, an L&T lifer, moved up the ranks, getting experience in design, construction methods, supply chain and mobility. Now, as executive vice president and head of urban transportation, L&T Construction, she is leading the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project, one of L&T’s biggest ever contracts. She also mentors younger women engineers. Things are, of course, different now. In FY24, L&T hired 2,600 graduate engineer trainees and post-graduate engineer trainees, of which 30% were women. The percentage of women employees, however, was just 8.1% in March 2024. The company aims to increase it to 10% by 2026.

At Tata Projects, women representation increased from 3% in FY18 to 6.8% in FY23. The company’s aim is to cross double digits in two years. Public sector Engineers India’s FY23 annual report says women comprised 11.7% of its employee base. JSW Steel had 12,856 employees in FY23 of which 743 were women. In FY24, 26% new graduate engineer trainees hired by JSW Steel were women. In services, things are better. Women are 35.6% of employee base at TCS. The number is 39% at Infosys and 36.6% at Wipro.