Meesho’s New Parents to get 30-week Gender-neutral Parental Leave

Committed to fostering an employee-centric workplace, Meesho, India’s largest social commerce platform, today, announced 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.

Since work is invariably tied to the personal identities of employees, Meesho’s new policies also reflect evolving societal beliefs and ensure non-discriminatory benefits irrespective of employees’ gender or sexual identity. 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 does away with the differentiation between natural childbirth, adoption, and surrogacy.

Highlights of the Parental Leave Policy:

• Ensures non-discrimination irrespective of gender, sexual identity, marital status, or the circumstance of parenthood (natural birth, surrogacy, or adoption)
• The parental policy also covers live-in partners
• If the employee is a primary caregiver, they are eligible for leaves up to 1 year (30 weeks fully paid leave + 25% pay for next 3 months)
• 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)

Commenting on the new policy, 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.”