Maersk has opened an all-women-operated warehouse in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh.
Located on the premises of the Container Freight Station (CFS), the warehouse, which was inaugurated recently, is being operated by women employees who hail from the villages around its location.
The cohort has undergone training for operating machine-handling equipment like forklifts and trucks. However, some women were readily deployed to take up unskilled and semiskilled work on the site, according to news reports.
Maersk representatives were quoted as saying that a lot of effort went into finding the right people for the work at the warehouse. The team overcame several challenges to pull off the remarkable achievement of having a well-trained and efficient workforce at the site.
The reports said that 84 women have joined the 350-strong team at Dadri CFS and that the organization was keen on improving the gender balance in the workforce.
News reports quoted representatives of Maersk as saying, “At Maersk, we are constantly strengthening our efforts in the area of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). We also realize that in the larger DEI picture, gender diversity is a low-hanging fruit that can be addressed as long as there is a strong will to do so.”
While expanding our warehouses across the country, we wanted to create opportunities for women in a traditionally male-dominated sector. As per the 2021 census, Dadri has only 6% working women of its total population, and our team on the ground had a strong desire to contribute towards a change in that respect, news reports quoted Vikash Agarwal, Managing Director, Maersk South Asia, as saying.
