The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued an advisory to the stakeholders to increase the participation of women in the aviation workforce to 25% by 2025, as the government looks at ways to break gender bias and promote women empowerment in the country.
The industry estimates an average of 5-14% presence of women workers across various roles in the aviation sector of India, with the highest representation in the pilot category at 14%. In fact, there has been a significant upswing in the enrollment of women pilots in India in recent years. In 2023, a total of 1,622 commercial pilot licences (CPL) were issued in India, of which 294, or nearly a fifth, were issued to women. This is also 22% higher than 240 CPLs issued in 2022.
“The stakeholders are advised to promote enhanced representation of women in the aviation workforce, introduce leadership and mentorship programs for women in the organization, address the issue of stereotypes and gender bias and promote a better work- life balance for women employees,” DGCA director general Vikram Dev Dutt said in a statement.
In the advisory to airlines and airports, DGCA has asked them to monitor the company’s gender ratio to identify gaps in diversity, to set up a system to evaluate and track progress in gender diversity, identify specific diversity objectives to guide hiring procedures, ensure equal representation during recruitment of new professionals, promote representation of women while constituting various committees or task groups, provide allowances and maternity leave as per prevailing rules, and adopt a zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment at the workplace.
The regulator has also advised airlines to develop policies to provide opportunities to the cabin crew in other technical or operational areas under special cross-functional sponsored programs, reported Mint.
