On March 7, 2025, the Godrej DEI Lab hosted the Women at Work event at the Godrej One campus in Vikhroli, Mumbai. This event was organized in collaboration with Godrej Fund Management, and the Centre for Economics and Data Analysis (CEDA) at Ashoka University to launch a report on the success of returnship programmes, which enable women to return to their careers after a break, typically for household and care responsibilities. 

As the attendees settled into the Godrej One auditorium, "Godrej ki Shakti: The Malanpur Moment,” a short film by Godrej DEI Lab and Godrej Consumer Products Ltd, (GCPL) was screened. The film highlights gender diversity and inclusion at the GCPL factory in Malanpur in Madhya Pradesh.  

The film set the tone for the rest of the afternoon, with gender inclusion at the workplace being the central issue for discussion.  

Supriya Nair, Deputy General Manager, Research and Media, DEI Lab started things off by outlining how academic research by Dr Ashwini Deshpande, the Founding Director, at CEDA, Ashoka University has been crucial to understanding women’s relationship to work in India from an economic lens. She also emphasised how returnships have the potential to drive change on extending the longevity of women’s careers. Expressing hope that the DEI work done by the Godrej Group creates an ecosystem that places success and happiness at the core of things, she said, “This is a work in progress for [Godrej], which is partly out of humility, but partly because we all see the journey as a long one, and one that needs us to constantly pay attention to what we really want for ourselves and for each other.”  

It was a sentiment echoed by Sumit Mitra, Head of Group HR, and Corporate Services for Godrej Industries Group (GIG) who, in his address shared highlights of the Group’s efforts to promote gender diversity. He said that engagements like the “Women at Work” event are opportunities to reflect on women’s participation in the workforce and that this participation is not just affected by microeconomic factors, but also larger social norms. Speaking about the work of the Godrej Industries Group (GIG) in this regard, he reiterated that women make about 30% of GIG’s total workforce and highlighted the need to do more for a diverse senior leadership. He underscored the importance of developing a critical mass and ecosystems for support and cited employee resource groups (ERGs) as one effective way to do so.  

Members of the Godrej DEI Lab and Team CEDA launching the Returnship Road Report

This address was followed by the official launch of the “Returnship Road” report authored by CEDA, Ashoka University, in collaboration with the Godrej DEI Lab. While the audience shuffled through the pages of the report, Dr. Ashwini Deshpande, the Founding Director of CEDA, presented the report's findings in an engaging session. She started off with a crucial question – why is it important to focus on women returning to work after a career break? Her answer was simple, but effective. "When women are on a career break it isn't as though their learning stops. These women are older, wiser, and more mature. And we need to recognise their talents, and that they might change when they are on a break."  

However, she emphasised, that these women face challenges when re-entering the workforce — biases, skill gaps, discrepancies in salary expectations, and a lack of support systems in the workplace.  

So how can organisations solve this issue? Dr Deshpande recommended that organizations be flexible with returning employees, regularly track data, and gather feedback. Most importantly, she emphasised, "Leadership buy-in is essential. The change cannot be done from the bottom up. It needs to be a top-down change." Her parting thought, was also a thread for continuing research in this regard: should returnships be gender-neutral? 

The panel that followed Dr Deshpande’s address soon picked at this thread. The panel for the event consisted of Anupama Ratta, CHRO, Tata Power; Kalyani Roy, Managing Director, Accenture; Nupur Garg, Founder, WinPE; and Shrayana Bhattacharya, Senior Economist, World Bank. It was moderated by Roshni Iyer, Deputy General Manager, DEI Lab. To start things off, Kalyani Roy shared her own journey of returning to work after her break and concluded that a one-size-fits-all solution does not work when looking at returnships. “All of our journeys are unique. The important thing is, finding what works for you and making the system change according to your needs."  

Sometimes, the system needs a language it understands to change. This was a perspective brought to the panel by Nupur Garg, whose work on gender diversity in private equity, often means encountering biases about what a “good” workplace is. She deals with this issue by looking at “workplace inclusion as a common language, and a common business.” She said, “I think it's very important to have that, so that neither party thinks, "You don't know what I'm talking about." 

Shrayana Bhattacharya emphasised how much of the issue of women at the workplace is influenced by social norms and how these norms influence opportunities for women to be financially independent. “Can norms change? Yes, they can change. They change when women are out of the home and have access to independent income, when they have access to a public life and an identity that is beyond what is traditional.” What will it take for norms to change — “If you connect women with opportunities, norms will change.” But are they changing enough? Anupama Ratta from Tata Power used the example of the organisation’s Tirunelveli plant. She spoke how at the plant an anaemia eradication program for their women workforce had a resounding positive impact. She encouraged employers to focus on holistic development of the workforce. “Change-making will happen only if your heart is in it,” she concluded. 

The evening ended with a delightful gathering in our cafeteria. Our favourite cupcakes from Zainab Patel’s Trans Cafe were back – and cleared out quickly. There were scrumptious momos from Josie’s Kitchen to add even more flavour to the experience and stalls by Aravani Art, showcasing beautiful prints that celebrate queer life. The stall by Trilogy Bookstore proved to be a hit, with the audience flocking to buy books by panellists like Shrayana Bhattacharya and Ashwini Deshpande and getting their copies autographed. 

The underlying sentiment as the evening ended was that of the need to relook closely at our workplaces and reimagine how work can accommodate women’s lives and their ambitions — both as young women, and at all stages of our lives.  

Text by Pulakita Mayekar.