New parents at Meesho to get 30 weeks of gender-neutral leave

Social commerce platform Meesho has rolled out a 30-week gender-neutral parental leave policy, in an effort to ensure non-discriminatory benefits irrespective of employees’ gender or sexual identity.

The new 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.

“We have been changing the way we look at some of our policies, and have been rolling out modifications where we felt they were needed. This new initiative ensures non-discrimination irrespective of gender, sexual identity, marital status, or the circumstance of parenthood (natural birth, surrogacy, or adoption), and also covers live-in partners,” Ashish Singh, chief HR officer of Meesho, told ET.

If the employee is a primary caregiver, they are eligible for leave up to one year (30 weeks fully paid leave and 25% pay for the next three months). If the employee is a secondary caregiver, they can avail up to 30 days of leave (applicable up to one year from adoption or childbirth).

The Meesho marketplace provides small businesses, which includes SMBs, MSMEs, and individual entrepreneurs, a range of benefits.

In April, the Bengaluru-headquartered company joined the unicorn club after the platform raised $300 million in its new funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank Group.