NEW DELHI: With Children’s Day simply behind us, India Inc has a well timed alternative to evaluate the progress of its childcare and parental insurance policies, particularly since these benefits grew to become necessary in 2017. Increasingly, firms are budgeting for childcare/daycare bills as a part of the HR insurance policies.
The variety of firms providing structured daycare profit plans has surged five-fold since then, with prevalence rising from 30% to 90% over the previous two years, says a survey shared completely with TOI. Along with elevated budgets and choices, many firms are additionally making childcare benefits extra inclusive. This displays a broader shift in the direction of supporting all employees in balancing work and household tasks.
The daycare assist programme for employees is remitted as per the The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act of 2017, which says employers with 50 or extra employees should present a creche facility.
“Daycare benefit is no longer just a policy on paper. Companies are going beyond legal requirements to improve employee engagement by supporting parents with extended daycare benefits, such as creches near home (or flexible daycare options), increased corporate funding or subsidies for daycare fees and expanding these benefits to all working parents, not just mothers. From almost 85% of the surveyed companies not allocating funds or offering this benefit in 2017, now a small number – only 17% – do not have an allocated daycare budget,” Ketika Kapoor, founder, Proeves, one of many largest aggregator and reserving platform for daycares/preschools, advised TOI.
In 2022, round 70% of the surveyed firms activated the daycare profit programme to get working mother and father again to workplace (as a part of return to workplace campaigns). The survey studied about 52 firms throughout sectors of FMCG, BFSI, manufacturing, providers and IT/ITES.
Surabhi Kaul, folks & tradition director, Sanofi (India) says: “Our childcare benefit policy not only offers 75% of the annual daycare fee, it also covers 50% of the monthly daycare fee at Sanofi-assessed and approved centres. Parents can avail of this benefit for up to three children, aged six months to 10 years as against the mandated six-year cap for childcare provision. Additionally, Sanofi’s equal parental leave not only grants time-off to new parents of any gender, it also offers paternity leave of 14-weeks, which is above industry norms.”
Currently, majority of surveyed firms allotted between 0-5% of their whole HR finances to daycare-related bills. While these budgets could also be modest, what’s important is the rising focus by firms on investing in these mature benefits to assist working mother and father. This shift may additionally sign a broader change in priorities, transferring past the millennial-centric traits which have dominated startup tradition lately.
Ashish Kumar, CHRO at Meesho, stated, “We have made it a precedence to create a people-centric office that evolves with the wants of our employees. Our Childcare Benefits and Parental Wellness Programme exemplifies this dedication, providing gender-neutral assist primarily based on caregiving roles.”
Further, Fidelity Investments is supporting associates via a handy, inclusive, and versatile daycare coverage masking kids as much as age six and accessible to associates of all genders, Narayanan Vijayaraghavan, head – compensation and benefits, of the corporate stated.
