Age and sex employment discrimination in India

 As usual, I scan the papers every day from front to back, and I read the classifieds as well. One aspect of the employment ads which strikes me is the rampant ageism and sexism of employers. What is illegal in western countries is apparently not only legal in India, but also does not raise an eyebrow.

 A typical ad would run like this:
"Engineer needed for electric mfg co. BE/ME, must have 5 years of experience. Age under 35."

I look at something like this and wonder how exactly hiring a 40-year-old engineer would hamper this company. Generally, an older person would have more experience, is likely to be more stable job-wise and is likely to be more compliant than a younger, rolling-stone hiree.

Then you'd find an ad like this:
"Wanted junior sales manager for plastics company. Degree must, experience not necessary, preferably females under 30."

What??? Look at the job, it's selling plastics or plastic components or machinery. What difference does it make, really, if the applicant is male or female, or over 30 for that matter? What really bothers me is that these ads are seen day in and day out, and nobody appears to actually comprehend that this is discrimination. I don't know what the law is with regard to hiring people, but nonetheless this should be a cause for concern especially as more women enter the white-collar work-force, and as people relocate for one reason or another, incidentally aging along the way.

Here's an actual current ad that a private company is running:

 Facility Executive (Facility Management):
Qualification: i) Graduation (Full-Time Course Only): 60 % of marks ii) PG Degree (Hotel Management) (Full-Time Course Only): 60 % of marks iii) PG Diploma (Hotel Management) (Full-Time Course Only): 60 % of marks
Maximum Age: 30 Years as on 01/Oct/2012

Really?? A birth-date cutoff for a private sector job? If the applicant turned 31 on September 30, 2012, would it affect his/her job performance? Is there any guarantee that the 30-year-old will stay with the company for 10 years, or even 1 year? Would employment terminate on the employee reaching his/her 31st birthday? Such limitations not only make no sense, they are gross violations of the right to employment, inasmuch as age(and gender where relevant) has little bearing on the job's requirements and will have little impact, if any, on job performance. The only factor other than the obvious age/gender discrimination that I can think of which might be behind such requirements is that lower pay might be a factor. Well, in that case, put your offer on the table, and you might be pleasantly surprised to find an applicant more qualified than you had hoped for, regardless of age or sex. What do you have to lose?

India has set itself on the path to a capitalist society. However, there needs to be a social compact in conjunction with this transition, which provides sensible protections to the people. As current employment laws in India appear to stand, there is little protection for anybody outside of union jobs, when it comes to arbitrary employment practices. In any event, I should hope that people, and public interest groups, will push their political representatives to create legislation that outlaws such discrimination because, one way or the other, if not today then another day down the road, this affects everybody.