Wipro honoured for empowering women staff

India's IT bellwether Wipro Ltd. was honoured with the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEP) leadership award in New York for its commitment to gender equality and responding to women's multiple responsibilities through innovative programmes.

T.K. Kurien, Wipro chief executive, who received the award at the UN headquarters during the WEP annual event Friday, said creating an inclusive and non-discriminatory workplace was aimed at helping women executives realise their career ambitions.

"We have crafted a segmented approach towards gender diversity that ties in women-friendly policies suited to their various life stages. We also enable greater participation of women at management levels to benefit from greater diversity, making us a multi-faceted and multi-skilled workplace where people from different backgrounds bring in new perspectives," Kurien said.

The WEPs leadership awards recognise chief executives for championing gender equality and support for seven principles, including the one which urges companies to establish corporate leadership for gender equality.

The global software major has instituted gender equity based on exposure, flexibility and empowerment. The 'Women of Wipro' programme, launched in 2008, is a strategic enabler that promotes equal opportunity and gender equality.

"The initiative helped us nurture an equal opportunity culture, support career ambitions of women executives and facilitate greater business participation by women leaders at various levels within the organisation," Kurien said.

As the private sector is the engine driving 90 percent of jobs, ensuring gender equality must be a priority for businesses and other stakeholders.

"Meeting the global employment challenge with approaches that ensure fairness for women is central to business, gender equality and post-2015 development agendas," said Georg Kell, UN global compact executive director, on the occasion.