Tata Steel Expands Women’s Workforce to All Shifts at Kalinganagar Plant

Tata Steel today announced that it has extended the deployment of women employees to all three shifts in the Outbound Logistics department of its Kalinganagar plant in Odisha. This is another step taken in favor of gender equity in the industrial operations of the company. The Tatas took the other significant step towards that equity by innovating the launch of an all-female mining shift at the Noamundi iron mine in Jharkhand, with India being chosen for that unique shift from December 2024.

This activity reflects Tatas’ celebration of the 10th anniversary of its flagship DEI program, MOSAIC, in the years 2023-2024.

The Kalinganagar plant started 39 trade apprentices in January 2025 from the 2023 batch, with 26 being women. Eighteen were taken into outgoing logistics. These women were placed into field-and-system work across all shifts upon completion of classroom and on-the-job training in safety, quality, dispatch processes, inventory management, and digital tools.

“This wider acceptance of women in mines, logistics, and in every shift is a major leap in enhancing workplace inclusiveness especially in manufacturing,” Karamveer Singh, General Manager Operations, Tata Steel Kalinganagar, says. “Technology has leveled the field, and we are also seeing women really taking these roles head-on. This gives us confidence to ask for more.”
Over the years, Tata Steel has consistently pioneered inclusion in core industrial operations. In 2019, it became the first company in India to deploy women mining engineers across all shifts at its Noamundi mine. In FY25, the company founded the first all-women shift in mining operations at Noamundi, further admitting women firefighter trainees under its Flames of Change initiative, thus becoming India’s first steel sector company with an all-women firefighting crew.

The Kalinganagar initiative is a landmark step in Tata Steel’s strategy to add women in roles that have traditionally been the preserve of men. This will further strengthen its case as one among India’s more progressive industrial employers when viewed with initiatives like Women@Mines and Tejaswini.

With the integration of women across all three shifts in logistics, Tata Steel chalks out yet another milestone in its decade-old DEI journey that stands as a benchmark to the industry in terms of inclusive growth in heavy manufacturing.