Covid- 19: Tata Steel announces slew of initiatives to support grieving families of its employees

New Delhi, 25 May 2021: Amid ongoing second wave of Covid-19 which has claimed lakhs of lives so far and continues to create havoc across the country, Tata Steel has come forward to support families of its employees who unfortunately became victims of this deadly virus. It has announced a slew of initiatives for the grieving families. Among the major announcements that the company has made is that It will be paying the last drawn salary of the employee to his/her families till 60 years of age of the deceased and many more.

In a statement posted by Sarajit Jha, Chief Business Transformation & Digital Solution at Tata Steel, the company announced, "The family will get the last drawn salary till 60 years of age of the deceased employee/nominee along with medical benefits and housing facilities."

"In addition to this, for all its frontline employees who as part of their job met with an unfortunate death due to Covid-19, the company bears all the expenses of their children’s education till graduation in India," it added.

Paying gratitude towards its employees who devoted their time and energy towards adding value to the organistion, Tata Steel recognised their effort and said, "It has come forward for its employees with a deep sense of loss at the sad demise of its beloved employees during this dreadful pandemic."

It should be noted that India is reeling under the havoc created by Covid-19 pandemic and has been witnessing more than 4,000 deaths every day for at least the past 10 days. This is the official figure but several media reports claim that the toll might be many-fold higher than that of the reported figures, especially in north India where health infrastructure is poor.

To restrict the increasing infection, almost all of the Indian states have individually announced lockdown despite the fact that the prime minister of India has publicly suggested that ‘lockdown’ should be the last resort while dealing with the virus.

The Prime Minister’s statement should be seen in the light of the lockdown that was announced last year on a four-hour-notice which put the entire country on standstill and had huge economic repercussions and job losses. The nation-wide lockdown imposed in March 2020 caught the attention of the entire world due to the migrant crisis. This year, the centre’s hesitation to impose a nationwide lockdown led to a huge burden on India’s poor health infrastructure.