A fully owned subsidiary of Bridgestone Corporation Japan, Bridgestone India is empowering women in manufacturing to lead India’s industrial growth.
The company has hired women apprentices at the Pune manufacturing operations. This is breaking barriers in manufacturing as these 93 women apprentices are honing their skills on the shop floor including operating heavy machinery and working in Quality Assurance.
Bridgestone India is also ensuring a conducive and safe work environment for the female workforce at the plant. The plants have been equipped with facilities including female security guards, crèche facilities, and separate transport for late shifts.
Now, the company has a total of 517 apprentices under the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme working at 2 plants in Pune & Indore, this move echoes the belief in empowering women to lead India’s industrial growth.
To facilitate the ever-increasing demand of the Indian market, Bridgestone has set up its state-of-art manufacturing facilities – first at Pithampur Industrial Area, near Indore, Madhya Pradesh in 1996 and at Chakan Industrial Area near Pune, Maharashtra in 2013. These two strategically located plants help to leverage the production of world-class products using highly advanced technologies.
Moreover, Manufacturing companies including Larsen & Toubro, JSW group, Tata Power, Vedanta, etc. have been working to increase the number of women in the workforce.
The manufacturing industry is working on diversifying the workforce and widening the talent pool in the company hence inducting more number females into the workforce.
As per the media reports, L&T inducted over 3,000 GETs in FY23 across its various businesses, of which 30% were women engineers.
Tata Power has 23% women representation among engineering trainees in 2023, up from 21% in 2022.
Out of the 1,300 GETs to be onboarded by Vedanta this year 30% are women, up from 27% gender diversity in the cohort in 2022.
Tata Motors started the first-ever all-women car assembly line
Recently, Tata Motors has been putting women on the frontline of Indian automobile manufacturing with the first-ever all-women car assembly line at its Pune plant.
This all-women assembly line, where the company’s two flagship SUVs – Harrier and Safari – are assembled by women from scratch.
For the past three years, over 1,700 women hailing from some of the remotest corners of Maharashtra have been building these cars at the Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles (PV) plant in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Pune, from scratch, including lifting windshields weighing 15kg.
Ashok Leyland has set up an ‘All-Women Production Line’ at Hosur
Ashok Leyland has set up an ‘All-Women Production Line’ at Hosur, Tamil Nadu. The company has up this line with 80 women employees at their Hosur plant.
Ashok Leyland has invested significantly to train and upskill them in core manufacturing skills and these women will be responsible for the entire production of the new engine line.
The company said, “We are proud to present the first of its kind All-Women production line at our Hosur plant to nurture and encourage more women in the industry!”
Ashok Leyland Managing Director and CEO Shenu Agarwal said, “At Ashok Leyland, diversity and inclusion has always been a priority, and we have been providing equal opportunities irrespective of gender and ethnicity.”
“Giving women these opportunities would enhance not only their lives but also the lives of their families and community,” Shenu Agarwal added.
“This initiative is in line with our brand philosophy of ‘Koi Manzil Door Nahin’ as we aim to up skill and generate employment for these women..we recognise the importance of establishing a better gender balance and initiatives like this (to) create a more inclusive ecosystem” he said.
The initiative to introduce an all-women production line is to promote women’s empowerment and encourage the women’s staff to take up roles in the manufacturing industry.