I recently attended Asian Voice‘s annual event, “Be the Change, Diversity and Inclusion”, held in association with the Royal Air Force. With the political headwinds in the USA impacting on the global sentiment towards diversity, equity and inclusion (‘DE&I’), I’m sharing some important points that we heard from the chair and panellists, who were all of south Asian heritage and represented diversity in hidden disability, gender, sexuality and neurodivergence.
My top takeaways
- Diversity is about standing out, not fitting in (Faheem Khan)
- Having a hidden disability involves dealing with the disability itself on top of being challenged by people who don’t believe you require support (Priyaneet)
- Measuring progress in inclusion is more than just numbers, it’s about the experience these individuals have and the culture (Vinita, Faheem)
- If you don’t have a role model, you need to become that role model for others to follow (Jasvir)
This event is especially relevant this year with companies and other large organisations shifting their focus away from inclusion and diversity.
Read my introduction to the panel (click to expand)
Left to right:
- Vinita Marwaha Madill is a Project Manager at Mission Control Space Services and the founder of Rocket Women, advocates for inclusion of women in STEM, where they remain underrepresented.
- Priyaneet Kainth is the Global Inclusion & Belonging Manager at Haleon, a Trustee of Victoria College, a specialist college for people with learning challenges, a Peer Support Volunteer at Muscular Dystrophy UK and a Disability and Leadership Coach. She has a hidden disability, Charcot-Marie Tooth (CMT) and faced additional difficulties growing up in the South Asian Community with this.
- Faheem Khan is a Civil Society Organisation Provider at the UK Home Office and the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime in London, and the CEO and Founder of Future Leaders UK. He is neurodivergent, proudly identifies and LGBTQ+ and emigrated to the UK from Pakistan at 11.
- Jasvir Singh CBE (chair of the discussion) is a barrister specialising in family law, Chair of City Sikhs, Vice-Chair of the Faiths Forum, Co-Founder of South Asian Heritage Month and a contributor to Radio 4’s Thought of the Day.
The chair’s introduction
Jasvir opened by acknowledging that, despite us having numerous ethic minority MPs and South Asian former Prime Minister, this hasn’t erased systematic bias.
This point resonates, especially when we consider that Rishi Sunak, despite appearing more qualified and appropriate, was only made the Prime Minister after Liz Truss made her short and widely criticised attempt. Could this have been a result of systematic bias amongst the Conservative Party members?
The host’s perspective
Navendu Mishra MP, the event’s host and former RAF Air Cadet, recalled that not that long ago, discrimination against the Asian and black communities was normalised in everyday society, with exclusion from jobs, verbal abuse and violent attacks.
Diversity within the RAF
Group Captain Gareth Taylor, highlighted that this event was not just a representation challenge, but a challenge to the mindset of leadership towards diversity. He noted that the RAF’s leadership value inclusion of minorities a way of bringing diverse thinking and creativity, resulting in better decisions being made.
Panel discussion
The panel shared what Diversity and Inclusion meant to them:
- Vineeta observed fewer and fewer women and minorities working in STEM as the seniority increased. She believes in inclusion through role models and telling the stories of incredible women to inspire the next generation.
- In his youth, Faheem had to hide parts of himself, his Pakistani identity, neurodiversity and sexuality. He discovered that to him, DE&I is about standing out and not fitting in. Lots of young people feel they need to fit in to be successful, but their diversity can be their superpower once unleashed.
- To Priyaneet, diversity and inclusion means to be seen, to be heard and to be valued. She shared her experience having an invisible degenerative disability, noting she had experienced lots of stigma in the community as a result of this.
Measuring meaningful progress
Vineeta stated that that progress in DE&I is not just about numbers, but changing the system and culture to enable opportunity and foster a sense of belonging for women in STEM and engineering, which can’t be measured in numbers as and statistics as easily.
Jasvir added, if you don’t have role models now, you have to become that role model you want to look up to for the next generation.
Personal challenges of a hidden disability
As Priyaneet doesn’t look disabled in the stereotypical sense, she gets challenged when using disabled bays, despite an intense condition which includes cerebral palsy. Having a hidden disability is more tiring than having a visible disability as she constantly has to prove why she needs additional support, in addition to the challenges she faces with the disability itself.
Priyaneet added all need to change the narrative as nobody knows the different layers that we have to us above gender and race. We all need to listen and learn and control how we respond.
Areas of challenge for DE&I in the UK
Faheem cautioned how quickly we can lose what we take for granted. We each have a responsibility observe what’s happening, even if we are in a good place now, but that can change quickly with complacency.
Faheem echoed Vineeta’s earlier point on the measurement of DE&I – we’re seeing positive inclusion numbers, but what matters is the experience. It’s good helping minorities into careers, but not all of them have a positive experience and many leave because of this.
Faheem’s final point was the UK has some of the weakest social mobility in Europe, stating it can take up to five generations to move from working class to middle class.
How to improve social mobility
Vineeta cited invisible barriers to industries and jobs, these can be broken down by (1) mentorship, which help people to understand how to enter industries and (2) scholarships, which provide education opportunities to allow entry. She highlighted the work she does through Rocket Women in providing these opportunities.
Faheem spoke about the work he does through Future Leaders UK, adding that the biggest thing we can do for young people is the access. There is no substitute for taking young people in to a space and a place they don’t normally have access to so they can see the diversity already there.
Positive discrimination vs meritocracy
Jasveer polled the audience as to whether they were in favour of positive discrimination, with an approximate even split for and against.
Faheem favours meritocracy. He believes the approach to DE&I should be ensuring the opportunity, not the job, ultimately the job should go to the person that is best. He no longer believes in programmes that are exclusion-based as that can end up in a dangerous place where these initiatives can create resentment. Initiatives instead based on inclusion may help to protect the progress made in DE&I and work towards equality. He added that white working class boys are amongst the most disadvantage in the UK and are seldom addressed by inclusion initiatives, hence why we should focus on inclusion. By contrast, Indians are the second best performing students in secondary schools by GCSE grades (source).
Vineeta countered by reasoning that initiatives excluding men are a practical way to solve the lack of female participation in engineering.
What can we (everyone) do?
Priyaneet highlighted that we are all leaders in one way or another. We can all be that voice that champions inclusivity. If we see a gap, we have the responsibility to step up and do something about it, such as speaking up for what’s right or leading a network.
Faheem noted that it may not be your day job to Worry about DE&I, but we can all be allies.
Vineeta said we can all talk about the problems we see, be kind and if we see people in need, help them.
Disclaimer
Although I have made every effort to ensure a faithful representation of this event, my own biases may be expressed through this article. I would encourage you to read Asian Voice’s article on the event, I have deliberately not read this before writing this article to ensure the thoughts and memories that went into it were my own.
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