India’s corporate sector speaks fluently about diversity. Annual reports are dotted with pledges, panels debate inclusion, and leadership statements regularly invoke equity. Yet, step inside most offices and one truth becomes unavoidable: people with disabilities are largely missing from the workforce. Not because they are absent from society, but because they remain excluded from opportunity.This contradiction sits at the heart of India’s diversity challenge, and recent data has stripped away any remaining ambiguity.
A gap the numbers no longer hide
The Marching Sheep PwD Inclusion Index 2025 offers a sobering snapshot of corporate India’s disability inclusion record. According to the index, most Indian companies employ less than 1 percent of persons with disabilities (PwDs). A significant number do not employ even a single person with a disability. The findings underline a structural failure, not an isolated oversight.The data exposes a widening gap between intent and execution. Policies exist, commitments are announced, and yet participation remains negligible. Disability inclusion, it appears, often stops at the level of intent.
Laws exist. Access does not.
India cannot claim a vacuum of legal protection. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act mandates equal opportunity, non-discrimination, and reasonable accommodation. Corporate diversity charters frequently echo these principles. But the lived reality for jobseekers with disabilities tells a different story.Barriers to employment for disabled people start very early, at the stage of shortlisting, where inaccessible application systems, unconscious bias, and very narrow job descriptions totally screen out the candidates without their realization. Those who manage to get through the door still face the challenges of workplaces without ramps or accessible washrooms and digital tools that are not compatible with assistive technologies. Career growth is a further problem; leadership pipelines hardly ever take into account disabled people, therefore making the idea that inclusion is for the sake of good public relations at the entry level, not for long-term growth.India is bleeding talent that it has already discovered, developed and that it could nourish and support to blossom.In many cases, disability inclusion is portrayed as a form of charity or a way of ensuring compliance. However, experts claim that such a portrayal is essentially wrong.
The talent India keeps losing
Disability inclusion is often framed as charity or compliance. That framing, experts argue, is fundamentally flawed. India’s 2011 Census recorded 2.86 crore people with disabilities. That figure has almost certainly risen in the years since. Within this population are engineers, designers, analysts, managers, and entrepreneurs, trained, ambitious, and capable. Exclusion does not reflect a lack of ability; it reflects systemic neglect.By sidelining this workforce, companies are shrinking their own talent pools at a time when skills shortages dominate boardroom conversations.
From symbolism to systems
The Marching Sheep report makes one reality clear: symbolic gestures will no longer suffice. Disability inclusion demands structural change, accessible hiring platforms, redesigned job roles, sensitised managers, and measurable accountability at leadership levels.More importantly, it requires a shift in mindset. Inclusion is not about adjusting workplaces for a few; it is about recognising that diversity, including disability, strengthens organisations. Globally, studies have consistently linked inclusive workplaces with higher innovation, retention, and resilience.India’s demographic advantage cannot be sustained if millions remain excluded by design.
An unfinished promise
India’s corporate sector has shown that it can move quickly when priorities are clear, whether on digital transformation or sustainability reporting. Disability inclusion now demands the same urgency.The data from the Marching Sheep PwD Inclusion Index 2025 does not merely highlight absence; it raises a larger question of credibility. Can a workforce claim to be diverse while systematically excluding one of the country’s largest marginalised groups?Until people with disabilities are visible across office floors, leadership tables, and growth trajectories, India’s diversity narrative will remain incomplete, and the cost, both human and economic, will continue to rise.
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