Kumar Bahukhandi
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Inclusive leadership, equity, and cultural intelligence take centre stage
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Launch of Allyship Clubs in Chennai / TN Government schools to usher in a gender-neutral society through project MITR (Men Impacting Trust & Respect)
Avtar Human Capital Trust, the non-profit wing of Avtar, India’s leading workplace culture consulting firm, organized ‘Male Allyship Synergy Summit’ (MASS) 2025, a first-of-its-kind platform for corporate professionals and students to come together to champion male allyship. An extension of MITR (Men Impacting Trust & Respect), a key initiative under Avtar Human Capital Trust that focuses on gender sensitization among adolescent boys from across Tamil Nadu’s government schools, MASS, is a contest-driven movement that challenges boys to step-up, speak-up and show-up as true allies for gender inclusion. This event is to be held annually during the month of International Women’s Day.
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Avtar Human Capital Trust organises Indias First Male Allyship Synergy Summit for Students and Corporates
The inaugural summit held at Tidel Park witnessed about 200 schoolboys from four government schools, over 100 college students from Chennai and representatives from more than six corporate organizations, taking a collective pledge to reinforce their commitment to fostering gender equality. Whilst, the highlight of the summit was the launch of ‘Allyship Clubs’ at the schools that are a part of project MITR, there are also other key programs: a panel discussion on Beyond Good Intentions: Turning Allyship into Everyday Actions, Heart to Art – a poster-making contest, Video bytes on the best practices and power of Allyship at workplace and other competitions centred around Male Allyship.
The Chief Guest Mr Anand Mohanram, Managing Director of Mr. Cooper Group lit the lamp and congratulated Team Avtar for this thoughtful initiative that encourages men to be active allies in changing workplace cultures and championing women’s empowerment by creating equitable spaces both at work and in the society.
Speaking at the event, Dr Saundarya Rajesh, Founder-President of the Avtar Group and the Managing Trustee of Avtar Human Capital Trust, said, “MASS marks the beginning of structured engagement between corporates and students through Allyship Clubs in schools. These clubs endeavour to bring boys and girls together to actively practice allyship. Male allyship is a catalyst in driving progress towards SDG 5 and achieving gender equality. And what’s important is that we begin teaching boys to advocate for girls at the earliest stage, an effort MITR, which operates in 30 schools across Tamil Nadu, is involved in. Let’s keep in mind: For a Viksit Bharat to become a reality, both men and women must thrive. And this begins with our boys fiercely supporting our girls – an inspiring sight we witnessed today.“
Mr. Eswar Balasubramanian, Senior Vice President, Avtar Human Capital Trust spoke about the critical role men play in advancing gender equality and how they can promote inclusive leadership, advocate for opportunities and be an ally in action.
The events:
The Heart to Art poster-making contest encouraged participants to visualize a world, where all boys promote equality. A corporate video byte contest highlighted the best practices in fostering male allyship within workplaces. A college-level roleplay focused on breaking gender stereotypes together. A panel discussion on the topic Beyond Good Intentions: Turning Allyship into Everyday Actions, moderated by Ms. Sanjula Bai, Group Manager at IBM, the panellists included, Mr. Rathinavel Rajan, Head of HR at Balls Engineering, Mr. Saravanan, Director – People Communications and CSR, Kone India, and Dr. Shanthi, Principal of Asan Memorial Arts & Science College.
To know more, visit www.myavtar.com
About Avtar
Avtar, founded in 2000 by Dr Saundarya Rajesh, is one of India’s leading workplace culture consulting firms, supporting hundreds of companies in creating diverse and supportive workplaces. Avtar is credited with introducing the concepts of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) to Indian corporates, and is also the country’s largest provider of second career opportunities for women.
An ISO 20700 certified firm, Avtar’s biggest research project is its annual benchmarking study – the 100 Best Companies for Women in India (BCWI) and the Most Inclusive Companies Index (MICI). Done in partnership with Seramount, BCWI and MICI are India’s largest DEI benchmarking studies, which have paved the way for the employment of more women and other under-represented groups. Avtar also promotes diversity hiring through My Avtar, India’s first diversity job portal.
As Avtar enters its 25th year, here’s an overview of its contributions:
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Provided advisory services in inclusive practices to 500+ organizations
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Conducted 20,000+ training programs in companies of different sizes, spanning industries and locations
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Coached more than 25,000 managers in DEI
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Facilitated the re-entry of 1,00,000 second-career women into the workforce through MyAvtar.com
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Provided Intentional Career Pathing training to 200,000+ women, preventing them from leaving the workforce
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Offered unique skilling programs such as DigiPivot (a prestigious course in digital marketing, conducted in partnership with Google, HUL, and ISB) to hundreds of women.
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Provided career intentionality training, employment guidance, and access to industry leaders every year to 10,000+ girls from underprivileged backgrounds through Project Puthri, an initiative of the Avtar Human Capital Trust (AHCT).
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Impacted 4000+ schoolboys through MITR (Men Impacting Trust and Respect), an initiative by AHCT that mentors boys to be advocates for women.
For its transformational impact in the realm of DEI, Avtar Group was listed in the prestigious Steward Leadership 25 Listing by Strait Times & INSEAD at Singapore in 2022.
