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While top IT companies of India have raised the share of women employees in their workforce well over 35%, top manufacturing companies on an average are way behind in them in terms of hiring women, triggering question marks on gender disparity at workplace. Manufacturing companies actually employ fewer than seven women per 100 employees, The Economic Times has stated in a report analysing data from entities comprising the S&P BSE India Manufacturing Index.

The number further dips to below 5 women per hundred – or 5% of the workforce – when factory workers are concerned. In the offices, women comprise just about 10% of the employees, bringing the average to about 7%.

Some of the big guns of India Inc employ a stunningly low share of women. For example, Grasim has women comprising only 3.1% of its workforce. The companies that have far fewer than 10% women include Asian Paints (6%), Bajaj Auto (6.4%), Coal India (6.5%), Hero MotoCorp (8.6%), Eicher Motors (8.2%), Divis Laboratories (9.9%).

Those companies where women constitute more than 10% are Cipla (15.8%) and Dr Reddy’s (21.1%). The only companies in this index that rises to the levels of the IT majors include Titan and Britannia.

The company with the lowest presence of women in blue-collar jobs is Maruti Suzuki and Divis Laboratories that has 0.1%. UPL and L&T have fewer than 0.5% women employees. The highest presence of women in this respect is Titan with 49.1% and Britannia with 43.1%.

In white-collar jobs, Hindustan Unilever has 26.7% employees who are women, which is the highest. The lowest share of women in white-collar jobs is 4.7%  is in UltraTech Cement.

The reasons are not far to seek. “Shifts, lack of a systematic method of providing flexible working, and gender discrimination and biases around what careers women can pursue have been some common challenges,” said Dr Saundarya Rajesh, founder president, Avtar Group, a diversity, equity and inclusion consulting firm. She also pointed out that fewer women go to study engineering disciplines such as mechanical, electrical and production engineering which makes it difficult for manufacturing companies to select women in the first place.

Experts point out that manufacturing jobs typically involve night shifts and family obligations and safety concerns often stand in the way of women working in these roles. Cultural barriers to women working in blue-collar jobs is another factor.

The condition is slightly better in white-collar jobs since some of these roles offer better timings and a few also offer the opportunity to work remotely.

“In the industry we operate in, it is difficult for us to have practices such as work from home,” said Dr C Jayakumar, head corporate HR, L&T.