Haimanti Bhattacharya

Corporate GM Marketing and PR at The VitsKamats Group

How does your workplace embrace equality?

Our work place is very gender neutral where talent is appreciated irrespective of the gender. Equality in opportunities, respect, understanding, faith on abilities and pay is normal to us.

As a woman, how do you make sure that you embrace equality? When you are the decision maker how do you make sure you are not gender biased?

I strongly believe in gender equality as a woman myself . We live in an era where men and women have equal talent, education, opportunities and possibilities. Gone are the times when women were considered as a liability to an organisation and hired as a policy. Today women know how to prioritise their careers and growth opportunities. I do not believe a married woman, pregnant woman or a mother is any less responsible towards her work or lacks in prioritising her career. When I make decisions be it for hiring or giving work to a woman or promoting one, I only consider her abilities and the desire to achieve more. My decisions are not based on gender, they are purely based on capabilities .

Do you believe that gender inclusive policies are justified with an increasing number of women in the industry while still not being a 50% strength or close?

I definitely believe that Hospitality industry has a big number of women employees and having gender inclusive policies are a must but I also agree we are far from being there. Not all organisations have been able to provide all round gender inclusive policies and even if they are made, they are barely followed. Women are ruling kitchens, front office, concierge desk, brand marketing, sales and so many other departments but small things like period leaves or extended maternity leaves make us doubt the authenticity of the leave and raise an alarm towards make them a policy. Companies are quick to judge a long leave of a woman employee, denoting them as less responsible or forever having health or family issues than they do with a male employee. Once we are free from the shackles of judgemental behaviour towards women; we could progress as an industry in gender inclusive policies. Women are best known to multi task and today’s woman does a fine job balancing a family and work.