'Regionalist, Not Racist': Bengaluru CEO To NDTV On Hiring Ban On Men From 4 States

“We will not hire any male candidates in our company who come from these four states in north India,” a Bengaluru-based entrepreneur made it clear in a social media post on Tuesday. The four states named in the policy are Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. In a subsequent post, he clarified that the decision follows an alleged incident involving a former male employee and women at his workplace. A blanket ban on male candidates from four North Indian states triggered a debate on social media, calling the policy ‘racist'.

Im sorry for this...

But today we have made it very clear after lengthy discussion and quarrel...

We will not hire any male candidates in our company who come from these 4 states in north india...

1. Uttar Pradesh.
2. Rajasthan.
3. Bihar.
4. Madhya Pradesh.

We do have 1…

— Karthik SG (@kkarthikkgs) September 22, 2026

In an interview with NDTV's Padmaja Joshi, Karthik SG, CEO of A1 Sports World, said that the decision is “not racist. It's being regionally biased”.

What Triggered ‘No Male Candidate From 4 North Indian States' Policy

In a post on X, Karthik shared that the “mess” started two weeks ago when an employee, a native of one of the four North Indian states was fired. He was allegedly abusive to female employees and was forcing himself on one of them despite warnings.

Karthik further noted that his firm, A1 Sports World, works with young children and for him the safety of his team and the children they work with is “more important than running a business”.

Despite backlash on social media, the entrepreneur made it clear that he will stand by his decision. This decision has been validated by one of his women employees who comes from Rajasthan, he claimed.

“He was an MBA graduate and his resume and background looked clean...But after two months he started being abusive to female employees and also tried to force himself on one of them...For us our teams safety standards and the Young kids we work with is more important than running a business...” Karthik wrote on X.

“We value human life... and respect one another,” he added.

‘Regionalist, Not Racist'

Speaking to NDTV, Karthik shared his reasons behind introducing a blanket ban on male candidates from four North Indian states. First, he said that he has a team of ‘young employees' with an average age of 25-26.

A1 Sports World has 32 employees of which nearly half (14) are female. At least 20 employees come from other states including 12 from non-south states.

“When they (young female employees) migrated to Bengaluru to work, I had to speak to their parents and had promised them that they would be safe here with us. There was an incident about two weeks ago, which was quite bad and it was daunting for us to solve it,” he said.

Karthik said the decision came unanimously from female employees.

“Most of the employees said that we cannot work with these people. We left our state because we were treated badly there. And we wanted to get out of this. If the same thing happens here, we are not happy.”

The second reason Karthik gave was their work with young kids and the need for female trainers.

“We don't sit in an office and work… Everyone is left on their own. I need to be very cautious because I don't want to be roped into a POCSO case in the future… Most of the trainers are not that highly educated. Most of these were ex-sportspersons. And the maximum they have is a bachelor's degree in their regional languages,” he said adding that schools and parents A1 Sports World works with demand more female trainers. And the job requires trainers to touch students to guide them and correct their postures.

When asked why single out four states, Karthik put the onus on high crime rate against women and children.

“The team made a much bigger list, but I said, this is not possible. If we do that, we'll be confined to nowhere.”

When his decision was called “racist”, Karthik dismissed it by saying it is “regionalist biased”.

“Not racist. We are all the same race. Not being racist, but yes, I am singling out a couple of regions because we do not trust the men over there,” the CEO said.

Karthik said he cannot trust men from the four North Indian states around women and children. The argument he gave was that adult females can report cases of sexual abuse or harassment but kids often either fear reporting or do not have the language for it.

The entrepreneur said that his firm is looking for psychological screening tests it could run on candidates before hiring them to understand their attitudes toward women and children.

Karthik said he would “apologise” for his post but will “stand his ground on the policy, though”.