Can your pincode decide if you get a job? India's new jobs debate

For many young Indians, getting a job in another city is more than a career move. It can mean leaving home, starting over in an unfamiliar place and hoping the new opportunity brings a better life. But what happens when the place you come from, or even your gender, begins to influence whether you get that opportunity?

A now-deleted viral post by a Bengaluru CEO sparked debate over women’s safety, regional bias and equal opportunities. The post, which outlined a hiring decision based on gender and state, was deleted within hours after facing backlash, but the debate it triggered continues.

The post comes at a time when Bengaluru remains one of India’s biggest employment hubs and a major destination for workers moving across states for better salaries and career opportunities.

Concerns around workplace safety, particularly for women, are real. But using gender or state of origin as a broad hiring filter raises another question: can safety concerns be addressed without judging an entire category of jobseekers?

As India’s workforce becomes increasingly mobile, people routinely move across states for education, jobs and career growth. If hiring decisions begin to rely on broad assumptions about where a candidate comes from or whether they are male or female, the impact could extend beyond one company and one recruitment decision. Your skills or your state: What should decide who gets the job? (AI-generated image) BENGALURU STANDS OUT FOR JOBS AND WOMEN'S WORKFORCE INCLUSIONAccording to TeamLease Services’ Employment Outlook Report H2 FY2026-27, Bengaluru is the top job location targeted by employers for workforce expansion in the second half of FY2026-27.CityEmployers targeting location for expansionBengaluru68%Hyderabad61%Mumbai60%Pune55%Delhi53%

Bengaluru also ranked first in Avtar’s Top Cities for Women in India 2025 study, with a City Inclusion Score of 53.29. The index considers factors including safety, women’s representation in employment, workplace inclusion, livability and career opportunities.RankCity1Bengaluru2Chennai3Pune4Hyderabad5Mumbai6Gurugram7Kolkata8Ahmedabad9Thiruvananthapuram10Coimbatore

The figures underline Bengaluru’s importance to India’s employment landscape and its appeal to workers from across the country.

That makes the question raised by the CEO’s post broader than one company’s recruitment policy. If similar hiring filters were adopted more widely, workers could potentially face restrictions based on characteristics they cannot change, rather than being assessed individually on their qualifications and suitability.

What can companies do to make workplaces safer for women without using gender or state of origin as a blanket hiring filter?

Anil Agarwal, Co-founder and CEO, InCruiter, said women’s safety is extremely important, but stopping hiring based on gender or state of origin is not the answer. He said companies should strengthen hiring, verification and workplace safety processes, including identity verification, employment history, reference checks, address verification and legally permitted criminal record checks.

“Background verification should be an important part of this,” Agarwal said, adding that companies also need effective POSH processes, clear reporting mechanisms, employee awareness programmes and appropriate security measures. Your skills or your state: What should decide who gets the job? (AI-generated image)

“The objective should be to identify genuine risks at an individual level,” he said, adding that gender or state of origin does not indicate whether a person will be safe or unsafe in a workplace.

Dr Yogish Arora, Director & CEO, HR Anexi, said the instinct after a safety incident is often to introduce a hiring filter because it can appear to offer an immediate solution.

“But it treats a systems failure as a sourcing problem, and those are not the same thing,” he said.

According to Arora, workplace safety should be built into how an organisation operates. This includes a functional POSH framework, an internal committee that handles complaints quickly and confidentially, regular sensitisation programmes, safe transport for employees working late shifts, and supervisors trained to address inappropriate conduct.

“None of that depends on a candidate's gender or the state on their resume,” Arora said.NCRB DATA SHOWS WHY THE SAFETY QUESTION MATTERS

The concerns around women’s safety cannot simply be brushed aside. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau’s 2024 report shows considerable differences in the rate of registered crimes against women across major metropolitan cities.CityCrimes against women per lakh womenJaipur199.6Lucknow186.3Indore181.2Delhi176.7Kanpur145.5Average across 19 metros93.5

The figures cover 19 metropolitan cities with populations above two million. Jaipur, Lucknow, Indore and Delhi recorded rates above the average for the group.

However, NCRB figures record reported and registered crimes, not the behaviour of every individual living in a city or coming from a particular state. Differences in reporting and registration can also influence crime statistics.

Most importantly, such data cannot establish that men from a particular state are more likely to commit crimes. A population-level statistic cannot determine the conduct of an individual job applicant.WHAT IF SAFETY CONCERNS BECOME A HIRING FILTER

This is where the Bengaluru CEO’s post raises a larger employment question. Employers have a responsibility to ensure workplace safety, but broad hiring restrictions based on gender or state of origin can exclude candidates before their individual qualifications and conduct are assessed.

If such practices become widespread, they could narrow job opportunities for workers from certain regions. At the same time, women’s safety concerns remain legitimate, while individual candidates should not be judged for crimes they have neither committed nor been accused of.

The challenge for employers is to build safer workplaces while keeping recruitment focused on individuals, not broad categories. Your skills or your state: What should decide who gets the job? (AI-genereated image) COULD THIS AFFECT CAREER MOBILITY?

India’s job market increasingly depends on workers moving between cities and states. Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Delhi are among the locations employers are targeting for workforce expansion, making geographical mobility an important part of career progression.

That mobility could become more complicated if hiring decisions increasingly incorporate broad assumptions about gender or place of origin.

If gender or state-based hiring filters become more common, what could be their long-term impact on career mobility and equal employment opportunities?

Agarwal said India needs to create more employment opportunities as workers continue to move between states in search of better salaries and career growth.

“If gender or state of origin becomes a common hiring filter, it could create barriers for people before their skills, experience or professional conduct are even considered,” he said. He argued that employers should assess candidates on skills, qualifications, experience, behaviour and references, while using appropriate background verification where required. Your skills or your state: What should decide who gets the job? (AI-genereated image)

Arora said the longer-term impact of such filters could be less visible but still significant.

“When you filter by where someone is from or by their gender, you are not screening for risk. You are screening for a proxy,” he said.

Over time, he said, companies could lose capable candidates without knowing it while narrowing the talent pool available to growing businesses. He also pointed to potential legal exposure if hiring practices based on categories rather than individual conduct are challenged.

His recommendation is to assess the actual risks associated with a particular role and workplace and address them through systems and processes.LOCAL HIRING DEBATES ARE NOT NEW

India has also seen debates over prioritising local workers. Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand introduced 75% local hiring requirements for certain private-sector jobs, while Karnataka proposed a 50% quota for management and 70% for non-management roles in 2024. The Karnataka proposal was later put on hold.

Internationally, Saudi Arabia’s Saudization and the UAE’s Emiratisation programmes promote greater employment of citizens in private-sector roles.

These policies differ from a company independently excluding candidates based on gender or state. But they highlight a wider question for an increasingly mobile workforce: where should employers draw the line between supporting local workers and limiting access to jobs for people who move across regions?THE BIGGER QUESTION

The Bengaluru controversy therefore goes beyond one CEO’s post. It raises a difficult question for India’s expanding jobs market: how can companies respond seriously to workplace safety concerns without turning gender or state of origin into a shortcut for judging individual candidates?

For a workforce that increasingly moves across state borders, the debate is ultimately about whether safety and inclusion have to be competing goals. Stronger workplace systems, accountability, background verification, and individual assessment offer one way of addressing safety concerns without making an entire category of jobseekers carry the burden of assumptions about where they come from or whether they are men or women.- EndsREAD | 1.76 lakh layoffs in 9 months: AI, cost cuts and the changing world of work

Fictional worlds, caffeine, good food, and great fashion are some of my favourite things. Hi, I'm Karan—nice to meet you.

Professionally, I tell stories that inform, inspire, and make education more accessible. When I'm not writing, you'll probably find me buried in a book, exploring a new café, planning my next trip, or debating fashion trends and food recommendations with friends.

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