Hindu employee terminated by Concentrix Pune for wearing Rudraksha

Terminated after complaining of religious discrimination; police case filed

Pune, Maharashtra – A serious case of religious discrimination against a Hindu employee has come to light at ‘Concentrix’, a renowned multinational IT company located in the Vimannagar area of Pune. A Hindu employee named Pawan Kumar Gopalrao Bagade was dismissed from his job for wearing a Hindu religious symbol, the Rudraksha. During Pawan’s employment, colleagues named Ginny, Dinaz, Nooran, Asif, Ivan, and Mohseen had subjected him to religious discrimination. In this matter, the victimised employee has lodged a formal complaint at the Vimannagar Police Station.

What is the case?

Pawan Kumar Bagade started working at this company on 26 January. During training at the firm and at the workplace, senior management officials repeatedly restrained him from wearing a Rudraksha around his neck. A ‘dress code’ was cited as the reason for this; however, no written policy regarding this was shown to him.

Against the discrimination occurring at the workplace, he had lodged formal complaints with the management against company officials Ginny, Dinaz, Nooran, Asif, Ivan, and Mohseen. However, instead of taking action against the employees concerned, the management pressured Pawan Kumar himself to quit the job, and eventually, he was terminated from employment.

Anguish of the victimised employee

Pawan expressed his distress against this injustice by posting a video message on social media on 12 June. Following this, the company directly issued him a termination letter. In this letter, the company officially cited the reason that ‘sentiments of people belonging to a particular religion were hurt because of Pawan.’ Despite being the victim himself and having lodged a complaint at the Vimannagar Police Station on 8 May, the company took this biased action against him.
Pawan alleged that while on one hand the conveniences of employees belonging to other religions are accommodated, on the other hand, pressure is exerted on Hindus to abandon their religious practices.

Expressing his grief, Pawan said, “My father served the nation in the Indian Armed Forces for 2 years, yet today, in my own country, I have to face harassment simply for maintaining my Hindu religious identity.”