Background: Congenial employment conditions and fair working environments play an important role in determining a country''s economic progress. Discrimination and non-inclusion of LGBTQ employees and People living with HIV (PLHIV) result in reduced job performance, employee disparity, lack of job security and limited access to health care services. The adverse legal environment in India also contributes to employment inequality, marginalization and socio-economic alienation for LGBTQ persons and PLHIV.
Description: The Humsafar Trust is a Community Based Organisation (CBO) and Sub-Recipient for Global Fund Round-9 funded Projects working in 27 states of India which focuses on sensitization of key policymakers and stakeholders. The advocacy initiative undertakes capacity building of organizations and emphasizes on having non-discriminatory policies in workplaces to curb violence and harassment faced by LGBTQ and PLHIV. Different methodologies including discussions, presentations, and theatre activities are employed to engage corporates and non-corporates into LGBTQ-friendly policy development and innovative initiatives to create safe workplaces.
Lessons learned: As a result of discussions with 38 corporates on the violence and discrimination at the workplace, crucial insights were obtained. There are very few corporates who have LGBTQ friendly policies in place. Those who have non-discriminatory policies do not proactively engage with LGBTQ and PLHIV inclusion due to the stigma attached to the subject. Furthermore, employees are not necessarily aware of existing policies and senior management is often not sensitive to LGBTQ issues. There were reports of instances of LGBTQ and persons living with HIV being denied access to health care, equal opportunities due to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity and HIV status.
Conclusions/Next steps: We need pro-active non-discriminatory and inclusive policies that specifically address issues around gender and sexuality. There is an urgent need for correct implementation of HIV AIDS law 2016 to maintain inclusivity that extensively addresses the varied dimensions of inequality. There is also a need for corporates, particularly multi-nationals who champion LGBTQ cause globally, to come forward and proactively advocate for LGBTQ-friendly policies through their Indian counterparts and franchisees.



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