Picture a finance manager with eight years of experience who stepped away in 2021 to care for a newborn. Five years later she’s ready to work again. She sends out applications and hears nothing back, because the résumé filter reads her gap as a red flag.
Returnship programs in India exist to fix that specific problem. Over the last few years, a growing list of Indian employers has started hiring women after career breaks through structured routes instead of ordinary job postings. This guide covers how those programs work, which companies run them, where they fall short, and how to build or choose a good one.
What is a returnship program?
A returnship program is a structured, time-bound work opportunity for experienced professionals who have been out of the workforce for a while, usually a year or more. It combines a paid role, mentoring and skill refreshers, and often leads to a permanent job. In India, most programs are aimed at women returning after caregiving breaks.
Why returnship programs in India matter now
The gap is large. A 2025 report from Ashoka University’s Centre for Economic Data and Analysis, written with the Udaiti Foundation, notes that barely a quarter of working-age women in India are employed. It also names career breaks, especially around maternity, as a major reason.
A Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report on returnships adds a structural point. India has no specific government policy supporting career breaks, so return-to-work programs are driven almost entirely by employers. CII calls the programs nascent but gaining traction, and names reskilling and low awareness as the biggest barriers for women trying to come back.
There’s movement on the hiring side. An Adecco India report, covered by Storyboard18 in March 2026, found that hiring of mid-career women professionals has risen 32–35% since the pandemic. Pharma, healthcare and life sciences saw a 28% rise in returnship hiring, and consumer goods, retail and manufacturing saw 24%.
Technology and IT services remain the earliest and largest adopters. The same report says that among companies recognised for women-friendly practices, the number offering formal returnships has doubled since 2016.
Those are hiring figures, though. They say nothing yet about who stays.
How companies are hiring women after career breaks
Indian employers have settled into a few distinct models.
Direct re-entry into full-time roles: Infosys relaunched its Restart With Infosys program, which People Matters reported in connection with its ESG 2030 gender goals. Candidates need at least two years of prior experience and a break of six months or more. The company’s CHRO said about 900 women joined mid-management roles through it in FY24–25. Mahindra Group went a similar way in January 2025 with SOAR, which offers full-time roles to women with at least five years of experience and a break of six months to three years.
Fixed-term contracts with a path to conversion: HSBC India’s Power2Her, launched in 2021, places women in six-month contract roles. Returners join workshops on rebuilding their professional brand and get a mentor. They’re hired across levels, with no cap on seniority.
Named programs inside IT services: Accenture India runs Career Reboot, HCLTech has a Returnship program, and TCS runs Rebegin. Amazon’s Rekindle and PayPal’s Recharge are in the same family.
Programs in manufacturing and other sectors: National Engineering Industries launched Back on Track to bring women back into management roles. Airbus India’s Fly Again recruits engineers and project managers. Generali Central Life Insurance recently rolled out Restart, built around training, mentoring and onboarding support.
| Company | Program | What’s publicly stated |
| Infosys | Restart With Infosys | 2+ years’ experience, 6+ month break; ~900 mid-management hires in FY24–25 |
| Mahindra Group | SOAR | 5+ years’ experience, 6 months to 3 year break; full-time roles, buddy and mentor |
| HSBC India | Power2Her | 6-month contract roles, hired across levels, workshops and mentor |
| Accenture India | Career Reboot | Women-focused return program |
| HCLTech | Returnship | Return-to-work program studied by Ashoka University’s CEDA |
| TCS | Rebegin | Training, mentoring, career progression path |
| National Engineering Industries | Back on Track | Management-level re-entry for women |
Eligibility and openings change often. Check each company’s careers page before you plan around any of these.
What the better programs have in common
I’ve read through enough of these announcements to see a pattern, and the difference between a program that works and one that’s mostly press release comes down to a few things.
The role matches the person’s pre-break level: Mahindra’s SOAR is explicit that returners get roles aligned with their earlier experience. A senior analyst placed in an entry-level slot learns very quickly what the company thinks of her break.
There’s a real mentor, plus a buddy: SOAR pairs each returner with both. The buddy answers the small questions (“Who approves this? Where’s the cafeteria card?”) that a mentor never hears about, and those small questions are where confidence comes back.
Skills refreshers are built in: CII found reskilling is the biggest hurdle for returners. A program that skips training just moves the problem into the first performance review.
Flexibility is on offer: SOAR includes job sharing and part-time arrangements. That matters because the reason for the break often hasn’t gone away.
Someone checks in: Structured one-on-ones and leadership reviews, as Mahindra describes them, catch drift early.
Where returnship programs still fall short
My view: the fixed-term-only model is the weakest, and companies should say so out loud. A six-month contract with no stated conversion rate is a trial period, and the returner carries all the risk. HSBC’s version at least pairs the contract with mentoring and workshops. Many copies don’t.
Other weak points:
- Awareness: CII flagged it directly. A great program that women can’t find hasn’t helped anyone.
- Cohort thinking: Programs run once a year can leave a woman waiting nine months for the next intake.
- Retention: A recent People Matters piece on Generali Central’s Restart makes the point that retention will be the real test of inclusion. I agree. A program that hires 100 returners and keeps 40 has a manager problem, not a candidate problem.
- Who’s included: A People Management feature by Forvis Mazars’ DEI leader notes that men also take caregiving or reskilling breaks and face similar stigma. Most Indian programs are still women-only, which is a reasonable starting point and worth revisiting.
How to build a returnship program: steps for HR teams
- Start with a role list, not a campaign: Identify the open mid-level roles where a returner can realistically succeed. A program without roles is a poster.
- Set eligibility in plain numbers: Infosys and Mahindra both publish minimum experience and break lengths. Candidates shouldn’t have to guess.
- Decide the conversion path before launch: Fixed-term or permanent? If fixed-term, say what percentage you expect to convert.
- Train the hiring managers: The returner’s first manager makes or breaks the experience. Brief them on how to review work after a gap, and what flexibility is on the table.
- Measure at 30, 90 and 180 days: Ask returners directly about workload, belonging and whether the role matched what was promised. If you already run employee surveys, add these checkpoints to them.
If you want an outside read on whether your people practices hold up beyond the returnship itself, Amazing Workplaces’ workplace certification assesses culture and people management through employee surveys. And if you’d like to hear how other CHROs handle re-entry and retention, the StoHRies events are built for that kind of conversation.
If you’re a woman considering a return
Read program pages for eligibility first. A break of 18 months and eight years of experience might fit Mahindra’s SOAR but miss another program’s cut-off.
When you apply, state your break in one plain sentence and move on to what you’re ready to do. Then ask four things before you accept anything:
- Is the role full-time or contract?
- Does it convert, and how often has it?
- Will my level and pay match my pre-break experience?
- Who will my manager be, and have they worked with returners before?
Some of those questions feel awkward to ask. Ask anyway. Companies running serious programs have answers ready.
Frequently asked questions
What is a returnship program?
It’s a structured, paid re-entry route for experienced professionals returning after a career break, combining a real role with mentoring and training, often with a chance of permanent employment.
Which companies in India have returnship programs?
Public examples include Infosys (Restart With Infosys), Mahindra Group (SOAR), HSBC India (Power2Her), Accenture India (Career Reboot), HCLTech, TCS (Rebegin), Amazon (Rekindle), PayPal (Recharge), National Engineering Industries (Back on Track) and Generali Central Life Insurance (Restart).
Who is eligible for a returnship in India?
It varies. Infosys asks for at least two years of experience and a six-month break. Mahindra’s SOAR asks for at least five years of experience and a break of six months to three years.
Are returnships paid?
Most are. HSBC’s Power2Her uses six-month contract roles, and Mahindra’s SOAR offers full-time positions. Confirm pay and contract terms with each employer.
Do men qualify for returnship programs in India?
Most current programs are designed for women. Some commentators, including Forvis Mazars’ DEI leader, argue the model should extend to men returning from caregiving or reskilling breaks.
A returnship is a good start. What decides whether it works is the manager the returner reports to on day one, and how seriously the company treats that first year.
