Shiksha Opinion: How gender sensitive are our B-Schools?

In the aftermath of the shocking Uber incident, officials from various government and private bodies are stepping towards gender sensitisation programmes and trainings.

All taxi drivers in the national capital will have to go through gender sensitisation programme to get fitness certificate for their vehicles (View Source). Workplaces too are organising similar trainings.

As the government and corporate world grapple with high number of sexual harassment cases across the country, we decided to take a quick look at various B-Schools – the hub of future managers and CEOs of the country.

What steps are students and faculty from top MBA colleges are taking to address harassment against women?

To find out, we spoke to students, faculty and alumni of IIM Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Kashipur, MICA and XLRI.

As expected, all the top MBA colleges had a statutory committee to handle any complaints made by students, faculty and other members of the institute. These statutory cells also address other grievances faced by the women participants of college.

But when it came to courses, none of the MBA colleges had an exclusive subject on gender sensitivity in the curriculum. It seemed like a distant dream to most people we spoke to.

Percentage of women in leading B-schools

However, we must mention here, all these colleges offered some or the other course on ‘Business and Social Sensitivity’. The idea behind these courses were to shape up socially-aware managers and building the concept of giving back to the society through a variety of causes.

According to Soumendu Ganguly, an IIM Ahmedabad alum, “We had an elective course that covered various social issues including gender sensitivity. At the end of the course, we had to choose a socially-relevant topic and present a short feature or slide show on the topic with possible solutions.”

MBA Institutes accepting CAT scores in Delhi-NCR	MBA Institutes accepting CAT scores in Maharashtra
MBA Institutes accepting CAT scores in Karnataka	MBA Institutes accepting CAT scores in Uttar Pradesh

According to Uday Damodaran, a finance faculty at XLRI Jamshedpur, “At XLRI, we don’t have a particular course on sexual harassment. But we have something called Committee Against Sexual Harassment (CASH). CASH constantly organises workshops and seminars to address such important issues. And these workshops are not just limited to the students. Any XLRI student, staff and their family members can attend these workshops. Last month we had a discussion on domestic violence.”

At IIM Bangalore, things are pretty much similar. “There are no courses on gender sensitivity. But we have necessary committee and cells handling gender sensitivity issues,” said Sankarshan Basu, faculty at IIM Bangalore.

We received similar answers from other colleges as well.

Finally, we reached IIM Kashipur.

“A course on gender sensitivity, no. We don’t have it,” said Dwarika Prasad Uniyal, faculty at IIM Kashipur. “But we take care of such issues in a different way. The institute has a compulsory self-defence karate course for women. A coach from Sports Authority of India (SAI) visits our campus regularly. Women candidates have to register for this course. We have invested a lot in this programme,” he added.

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Uniyal further added, IIM Kashipur students keep on organising some or the other activity related to women’s safety or gender sensitisation. “The students are currently organising some event for the Nirbhaya incident of December 16,” he said.

We were really glad to learn about the compulsory self-defence course at IIM Kashipur. Other top B-Schools should definitely follow the pursuit.

While such courses can be helpful, it doesn’t make-up for lack of programmes on gender sensitisation.

“Top MBA colleges have to focus on gender diversity. Only with gender diversity, will there be gender sensitivity,” says Uday Damodaran.

We agree with that.

But top MBA colleges should not only focus on improving gender ratio, they should also invest in shaping up good managers. And introducing courses on gender sensitivity, in a country like India where women are sexually targeted on a daily basis, will go a long way for the entire society.

Education and technology has the power to change mind-sets. And what could be better than to train future managers of the country. These very managers will grow up to be the future leaders and CEOs. And then these leaders can incorporate the principles of gender equality and sensitivity at workplace.

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