Committed to fostering an employee-centric workplace, Bengaluru-based Meesho, India’s leading social commerce platform, has come up with a 30-week gender-neutral parental leave policy.
The industry-leading policy has been designed with an outlook to provide fulfilling employee experiences cognizant of the efforts in caregiving and growing a family.
In a statement, the company said that it moves away from gender-based differentiation to parenting, rolls out equal benefits for men, women, LGBTQA+ and live-in partners. Notably, the new parental leave policy covers childbirth, adoption and surrogacy.
The 30-week leave policy applies equally to women, men, heterogenous or same-sex couples so they can stay present for their children and also do away with the differentiation between natural childbirth, adoption and surrogacy.
If the employee is a primary caregiver, they are eligible for leaves up to 1 year (30 weeks fully paid leave + 25 per cent pay for next 3 months) and if the employee is a secondary caregiver, they can avail up to 30 days of leaves (applicable up to 1 year from adoption or childbirth).
Ashish Kumar Singh, Chief HR Officer, Meesho, said, “We are really excited about the future – because we are looking at the policy not as a document alone but as a powerful resource that Meeshoites can tap into for help, assistance and empathy as they navigate their careers and lives. Most significantly, we have used this policy revamp to simplify the benefits and flexibility based on the caregiver’s role, rather than gender so Meeshoites can be entirely present for their family.”