French information technology company, Capgemini, is gearing up to hire 500 women from the rural areas of the country, train them, give them jobs and pay them salaries of over Rs 3 lakh annually. As part of this initiative, it has already selected 100 women from South India — graduates, diploma holders and postgraduates — who are undergoing training as software engineers. By December, it hopes to hire 300 more. Non-government organisations (NGOs) across the country are helping Capgemini identify such women for them — women, who are educated and have the desire to follow a career, but are unable to relocate, because of which they end up giving up their professional dreams.
With more than one lakh people in its workforce in India, Capgemini, like most other IT companies had to rely on its staff working from home. This led the Company to think of harnessing the talent of qualified women from the rural areas, as part of its ‘Sakhi Drishtikon’ project. These women will work with various teams in the cloud and infrastructure services (CIS) business and later on, with the cyber security teams.
The selected women will undergo rigorous training and mentoring by experienced engineers, before they are assigned to projects. This project is intended to help rural women, who are desirous of a professional career, fulfil their dreams, and in the process, increase women’s participation in the workforce. The first lot of 100 consists of women who have some experience and also those who have been unable to put their education to use due to circumstances.
