New Delhi, Mar 7 (IANS): Vedanta Aluminium Business, Indias largest producer of aluminium and its value-added products, has launched a ‘Vedanta#BreakTheBias Augmented Reality (AR) campaign on Instagram on the eve of International Womens Day.

The campaign is aimed at gamifying the message that female students and professionals should actively consider a career in the manufacturing industry, which is the most under-represented in terms of gender diversity.

The Vedanta#BreakTheBias AR selfie filter invites the viewer to visualise themselves in manufacturing gear like hard hats and safety jackets in the backdrop of a manufacturing plant.

With the words ‘Shout-out to women in manufacturing' and #BreakTheBias emblazoned across it, the AR campaign seeks to encourage both men and women to try out the filter and post their selfies on their Instagram handles to encourage women to opt for a career in manufacturing.

Globally, the number of women in manufacturing and heavy engineering segment has traditionally been less. Even today, manufacturing is not among mainstream career options for women, even for those choosing to be in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) related fields. On the other hand, the Indian manufacturing industry is rapidly evolving to be among the world's best.

The growing degree of smart automation and leading-edge digital solutions being implemented at manufacturing plants such as Vedanta Aluminium offer technologically evolved, high-impact and interesting career options for aspiring professionals. And yet, lack of awareness has kept women from actively considering a career in manufacturing.

To address the prevalent gender gap and foster a culture of diversity and inclusion, Vedanta Aluminium works on fundamental pillars of equitable workplace practices, such as:

* All job roles, no matter how non-traditional, are gender-agnostic and empowering.

* Women, like all employees, are hired for their attitude, passion to learn and grow, and sound educational and technical qualifications.

* They are then provided with the best possible training from global experts, and professionally groomed by the leadership. They are set up to succeed.

* High potential talent is provided interventions such as classroom trainings, executive coaching, mentoring and put into accelerated developmental programmes.

* With world-class townships having ultra-modern amenities in the vicinity of the plants such as hospitals, schools, day-care centres, swimming pools, stadia, gyms and advanced security systems, combined with industry leading people-practices, they are given an ecosystem designed to ensure they are supported at various life stages.

At Vedanta Aluminium, women professionals are thriving in traditionally male-dominated fields such as core operations and technical roles across the business, ranging from metal production, logistics, civil work and railway infrastructure to finance, security, and commodities procurement.

Elaborating upon Vedanta Aluminium's approach to the three pillars of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Rahul Sharma, CEO, Aluminium Business, Vedanta Limited, said: "At Vedanta Aluminium, we look at every role, no matter how traditional, as absolutely gender-neutral. Our markets, customers and businesses are diverse and complex. To match them, we believe in recruiting people with diverse points of view, experiences, skills, and education so that their business strategies are correspondingly well-rounded.

"We have one of the highest gender-diversity ratios in the heavy engineering and metals sectors in the country owing to our industry-leading people-practices. We are determined that this number will continue to increase significantly."

Besides core operations, women professionals also lead various unconventional roles at Vedanta Aluminium. For example, ‘Agnivahini' is an all-women firefighting squad in charge of ensuring fire safety at Vedanta Aluminium's largest aluminium smelter in Jharsuguda (Odisha), which is also one of the largest aluminium smelters in the world.

The same plant has also deployed ‘Baaz', an all-women special task force trained in martial arts to serve as the first responders in case of any unforeseen circumstances. ‘Baaz' has access to state-of- the-art gadgets and surveillance equipment to monitor the plant premises and ensure a safe working environment for all.