Businesses cannot prosper in a world plagued with poverty, inequality, violence and environmental stress. Hence, for companies, doing well and doing good simultaneously is of paramount importance. To do so, they must align themselves with the global development priorities and ensure that they fuel and catalyse the global efforts towards achieving SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)

Many companies are still at the beginning of their SDG journey. They need to work further to integrate SDGs in the business objectives and decide how to efficiently report on them. Orion helps integrate SDGs into their business objectives and performance metrics. 

Omysha Foundation is working in the following areas with corporates, volunteers and student groups

1. Ecology (environment, recycling, upcycling & climate) 
2. Economy (poverty, employment & diversity skill building )
3. Epidemiology (malnutrition, holistic healing and lifestyle)
4. Equality (diversity, discrimination and inclusion- -All lives matter)
5. Empathy (old age, animal care sensitization and music as therapy)

All Lives Matter

Women

Women constitute 48.1% of India’s population, but only 27 percent of adult Indian women had a job, or were actively looking for one, something economists call the labour force participation rate. That compared to 79 percent of men. The companies that perform best financially have the greatest numbers of women in leadership roles- yet proportion of women in senior positions in the Indian workforce reduced from 19% in 2013 to 14% in 2014. Men in India earned 19 percent more than women for the same job. The International Labour Organization says India has one of the world’s worst gender pay gaps. 

A meagre 1.5% of women leaders – from a population of 500 million women – are on company boards on merit, Almost 90% of working women in India are stuck in mid-level jobs. India is ranked 121st out of 131 countries in female labour force participation

Persons with Disabilities (PWDs)

Persons with disabilities (PWDs) comprise between one-fifth and one-sixth of the world’s population.26.8 million people in the country were classified as “persons with disabilities”2.21 percent of the total population. These figures encompass eight types of disability: sight, hearing, speech, movement, mental retardation, mental illness, multiple disabilities and any other. As a consequence of discrimination in employment, limited access to transport, and lack of access PWDs find it difficult to benefit from social and economic development and break the vicious circle of disability, unemployment, increased costs, and poverty

LGBTQI

There are approximately 4.8 million LGBTQI in India. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, intersex and gender-queer. The 2014 World Bank report -Economic Cost of Homophobia and the exclusion of LGBTIQ people: A case of India -estimated the country to have lost 0.1-1.7 per cent of the GDP due to homophobia. 92% of India’s trans people are unable to participate in any economic activity, a very small percentage have access to education, and 62% of those that do, face abuse and discrimination in schools and workplace

Veterans

In rural areas, 66% of elderly men and 28% of elderly women were working, while in urban areas only 46% of elderly men and about 11% of elderly women were working. The number of senior citizens seeking jobs to ensure they are financially independent is on the rise. 

Economically Disadvantaged

42% of the youth (15-29 years) who received formal technical training were not part of the corporate employment (i.e., they were not working or seeking employment opportunities, they reported). Among youth who did not receive such training, 62.3% were out of the labour force.Around 33% of the formally trained youth was unemployed in 2017-18. Nearly a third of trained young men and more than a third of trained young women were unemployed.

Diversity Skill building and employment 

Omysha Foundation partners with Helix, a leading Diversity hiring & Inclusion culture building company. Together Helix & Orion have created inclusion initiatives with employers including balance score card on productivity & innovation, women returning back to work, PWD, LGBTQI, Veteran hiring & retention, women at leadership/board positions, sensitization sessions at workplace and diversity policy , processes & culture.

While the foundation focuses on self reliance through skill building and social and economic inclusion of Women, Economically Disadvantaged, People with Disability, LGBTQI, Senior citizens and Mental Health organizations, Helix focuses on providing gainful employment in the area of diversity. We also work as a bridge between the section that can become Atma Nirbhar and the corporates that can enable the same.

For more details on Diversity hiring and Inclusive workspace, please visit- www.diversityemployment.com