When section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalised homosexuality was struck down by the Supreme Court, the LGBTI community across the country rejoiced. After several years of struggle, today, the world is metamorphosing into an equal and just place for the LGBTI community. But the question is, has our society accepted them? Did the stigma and prejudice against the community also go away with Section 377?
Trying to find answers to the questions, Ramkrishna Sinha and Srini Ramaswamy decided to address the issue in a unique way. Popularly known as Ram and Srini, the duo identified the most crucial aspect for the emancipation of the LGBTI community – Jobs! Financial Independence, in the words of Ram, is what makes a big difference in an individual’s life. In the quest, Ram and Srini founded the Pride Circle in 2017 which held India’s first LGBTI job fair in July this year.
“The financial stability leads to emotional safety, psychological safety and only when you are at peace can you plan to do bigger, to achieve better and there is no struggle for day to day earnings. I think here came the idea to put together a job fair that would really be impactful for the members of the LGBTI community,” said Ram.
The quest led the duo to team up and begin the construction of a channel that brings the LGBTI talent pool and the companies under one Umbrella. It was not easy but in the end, India was successfully able to get its first and the biggest LGBTI job fair called RISE (Reimagining Inclusion for Social Equity) that was held at ‘The Lalit Ashok’, Bengaluru on July 12th. Organised by Pride Circle, the event was spearheaded by Ram and Srini. The Logical Indian had collaborated with the event as “Goodness Partner”.
In conversation with The Logical Indian, Ramakrishna Sinha and Srini Ramaswamy take us through their remarkable journey from scratch.
Teaming up
Ram and Srini were working at Intel and Intuit when they met at a conference and exchanged ideas on inclusivity. They kept bumping into each other at conferences where companies and individuals would come together to have conversations about a more inclusive society. However, before section 377 was scrapped, there were very few companies who actually came out to talk. It directly indicated that if companies are apprehensive to even participate in the conversation, how would they be open to hire our LGBTI friends.
Ram and Srini felt the need to do much more to help their friends. “We began by doing meetups to help each other on this journey. A lot of people wanted to do something but they had never come across any trans person. So the meetups were also to familiarise one another with the community. We did meetups in about 10 cities and even in cities outside India such as London, Seattle, San Francisco, and Melbourne,” said Ram.
Adding to what Ram said, Srini explained how they met people who were working on a more inclusive work environment. But very soon they realised that there is no result until and unless they did something more tangible. “I think for us it became an important decision that there is no way we are going to progress unless and until we bring this conversation to the mainstream,” Srini added
India’s First LGBTI Job Fair
Many conversations, meetups, juggles and struggles later, the day finally arrived when RISE event became a reality, and it was creating history at the courtyards of ‘The Lalit Ashok’. It was the first-ever time that India witnessed something as path-breaking as a job fair dedicated solely to the LGBTI community. The event was organised under the Pride Circle Conclave.
The Bengaluru event saw an influx of LGBTI candidates and employers at the job fair. A host of notable speakers like Selisse Berry, Dr J Harrison and Devdutt Pattanaik enlightened the audience with insightful discourses around inclusivity.
The magic created by RISE- the film captures the essence of inclusion, a celebration of equal opportunity and recognizes the dignity in humanity.
Impact
The event indeed made a proud history when out of 320 job seekers from the community, 152 were shortlisted for the final interview and over 32 candidates got the job offers. The marketplace witnessed 20 LGBTI owned businesses and 45 sponsor companies among other things.
What Is Being Solved?
Until now the funnel of candidates was typically restricted to women, men and different age groups/demographics of young generations. But it had very little to do with people with disabilities and nothing to do with people of the LGBTI community. “Much marginalised become people of the community because they don’t stand a chance of getting a fair opportunity to be evaluated as a candidate. That was the thought process, the genesis of the overall initiative,” said Srini.
“We usually find that the LGBTI population is either unemployed or underemployed, especially the visible trans community without access to education and access to healthcare. There are so m…
