Tata Steel further expanded its transgender employee base by inducting 12 crane operator trainees from the LGBTQ+ community at its Kalinganagar plant in Odisha.

In December last year, in a landmark initiative, Tata Steel’s West Bokaro division onboarded 14 transgender people as Heavy Earth Moving Machinery (HEMM) Operators at its mines. These steps of inducting the LGBTQ+ community by the company aim to mainstream transgender people in society.

Tata Steel’s Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) initiative aims at curating a workplace where everyone is respected, every voice is heard, and people can bring their authentic selves to work.

The onboarding event at Tata Steel Kalinganagar (TSK) was organised on February 19.

Atrayee Sanyal, vice- president, Human Resource Management, Tata Steel, said, “I am pleased to welcome all the members into the Tata Steel family. We will continue with our efforts to drive LGBTQ+ inclusion and build a benchmark workplace. This journey of HR excellence has been extremely rewarding and motivates us to explore new horizons on diversity and inclusion.”

The trainees will undergo training for a year before they begin working in the plant as crane operators.

“The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step and this step in our endeavour to make a more diverse and inclusive workplace here sets an important milestone. As an equal opportunity employer, Tata Steel respects uniqueness of individuals and is putting its best foot forward to shape the workspace of tomorrow,” said Rajiv Kumar, VP (Operations), TSK.

D&I has been a part of Tata Steel’s ethos . The company has taken several path-breaking initiatives, including menstrual leaves, equal benefits for LGBTQ+ partners, gender neutral parental leave, and support for gender confirmation. An official of Kalinganagar plant said the company aims at creating a diverse, inclusive, safe and fair workplace and has adopted a target of having 25 per cent diverse workforce by 2025.

Notably, Tata Steel is a certified gold employer under Workplace Equality Index for LGBT+ workforce.