Women to fore as Kerala tech parks get ready to buzz again

Thiruvananthapuram: After roughly two years since the tech parks in Kerala wore a deserted look when COVID-19 restrictions kicked in the work-from-home format, the state’s technology parks are on the verge of returning to witnessing more action on their premises.

The fresh take-off is also witnessing a trend of companies focusing on gender diversity, including getting women who had to leave tech jobs owing to personal reasons to get back to work.

“Things are certainly looking bright for the tech parks and we could see the campuses coming back to full-fledged operations by June”, John M. Thomas, CEO, Kerala State IT Parks told Gulf News.

Thomas says unlike the perception that tech parks have been seriously dented by the work-from-home mode that leads to lower rental revenues, Kerala’s technology parks have all shown robust performances. “We helped companies to adapt to the scenario when COVID-19 struck, we helped them with the logistics needed for the emergency situation, and now we are assisting them with a full-fledged return to campus”, Thomas said.

Kerala has tech parks in the government and private sectors, and the state-government promoted technology parks in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode alone employ roughly 120,000 IT staff, not counting support staff.

Increasing share of women

Significantly, women’s labour participation percentage in India is a poor 20 per cent, and Kerala is no different, but in the tech sector the state has witnessed an increasing share of women over two decades. Presently, 40 per cent of the roughly 150,000-plus IT employees in Kerala are estimated to be women.

To drive up women’s employment and to bring women who had to drop out of jobs for various reasons back to the profession, a group named WE (earlier known as e-WIT, or Women Inclusive in Technology) has been undertaking multiple initiatives in the state.

“After the initial ambiguity that reflected in high attrition of women, the job market has stabilised and now steeply accelerated in favour of women with focused support from the IT industry and the state government to bring women back to careers. Many corporates in Technopark have partnered with us in the ‘BacktoCareer’ campaign”, WE vice president Radhika Viswanathan told Gulf News.

John Thomas feels that there is a strong underlying demand for physical office space, and once COVID-19 retreats there would be a major demand for fresh IT working space. He says companies are also realising the importance of work-from-office, particularly in instilling the company work ethic and culture among team mates, and to help mentor freshers and to improve their learning curves.