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More women than men are often forced to take a career break due to personal reasons, including but not limited to pregnancy, childbirth, taking care of children or the elderly. According to a study conducted by the Genpact Centre for Women’s Leadership, about 50 percent of working women in India leave their jobs to take care of their children and other family responsibilities. If they want to return to work after being away for years, they often face rejection from the recruiters who look down on their gap years.

Even in this so-called ‘modern generation’, there is considerably a large number of people (both men & women) who believe that a married woman should not be working outside the home if the husband earns a decent living. Thus, it is not surprising that females spent 16.9% of their time on unpaid domestic services and only 4.2% on paid employment compared to men who spent 18.3% of their time on the latter.Even though these are some negative news, there is always a hope, a light at the end of the tunnel.

*Quoting Stephen Hawking’s words “ However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”*

In India, numerous companies are now taking an effort to launch restart or returnship
programmes.Let us examine some of them

Google Next Innings Program:
This program initiated by Google aims for bringing back the talented women back to work with the help of mentorship and guidance from experienced workers.
Candidates applying for the programme should have at least five years of experience and have a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or an equivalent field. They must also have experience working with a programming language (Jave, C++, Python,
JavaScript, Angular, Go) and must have taken one or more years of break from work. The Next Innings program allows professionals to work on Google Cloud Storage, Data Analytics, Cloud Security, and its application management platform. The six months paid programme is available in Bengaluru and Hyderabad.

Amazon Rekindle Program:
The Amazon Rekindle program is designed to help women who have taken a break from their careers to re-enter the workforce. The process begins with an application for the job followed by preparation of the interview. Then a standard Amazon
process will be there. If selected for the job, you will be supported by Amazon Rekindle orientation.

Deloitte India offers a 16-week paid internship to those who took a career break for at least two years and are now willing to restart their careers. There will be placement chances at the end of the program.

Goldman Sachs India conducts 12 weeks fully paid internship for individuals who were at least on a break for two years and a job offer towards the end of the programme.Through a special returnship team, continual leadership development and support will be provided to navigate through the transition.

Udaan is a program designed by Mahindra to hire women who have been on a career break. 
Airbus launched a similar program in India called Fly Again.

Apart from these returnship programs by major recruiters, various Govt initiated schemes are available for empowerment of women in the workplace.

KIRAN- A project by the Department of Science and Technology(DST)
Project KIRAN was started in 2014 by the DST to bring together all its programmes targeting women on one platform. One part of it provides opportunities to women postgraduates in science or technology whose careers were interrupted by family or financial reasons. They may complete their doctoral and postdoctoral studies or work on their own plans. Depending on the programme, each scientist is given a monthly fellowship.

Mahila E-Haat:
Mahila E-Haat is an initiative launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development that provides an opportunity for women entrepreneurs to use technology and present their products (made/manufactured/sold) on an online platform.

Back-to-Work
Aiming at reviving the professional career of women, International Centre for free and open source software (ICFOSS), anautonomous institution under Kerala Govt organize various training in software domains.

Under Women Empowerment Scheme, *Indian Institute of Infrastructure and
Construction(IIIC) offers courses like

Advanced Diploma in Building Information Modeling

Advanced Diploma in Geographic Information System

Post Graduate Diploma in Urban planning and Management

Housekeeping Trainee- Level 3
The Kerala Academy for Skills Excellence will cover 90% of the course fee, including boarding and lodging, for the selected women candidates under the Women Empowerment Scheme (Conditions apply).

These returnship programs and schemes are important steps towards ensuring that the women’s perspectives and talents are not lost. And a final note- all these help only when we believe in ourselves.

An Article By Sabitha M
Career Counselor, CIGI