New Delhi, 19 March 2021: As India accelerates its vaccination drive in its fight against Covid -19, several corporates have come forward to match the enthusiasm by committing to vaccinate their employees free of cost. Many have gone a step further by offering to vaccinate even kith and kin of their employees.
So far, more than 20 million people in the country have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine in what is the world’s biggest inoculation drive.
India started its Covid vaccination campaign on January 16 with the two vaccines under the name Covaxin and Covishield. Earlier, it was limited to healthcare workers and frontline staff only. However, From March 1, the eligibility criteria expanded to include people over 60 and those between the age group of 45 and 59 having co-morbidities. The government hospitals are offering free jabs while those who want to get vaccinated at private facilities can get it for Rs 250 rupees per dose.
In January, the Corporate Affairs Ministry (MCA) allowed Corporate India to spend its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds for carrying out awareness campaigns/ programmes or public outreach campaigns on Covid-19 vaccination programmes. Its notification said that this will be treated as an eligible CSR activity under Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013, under items relating to promotion of healthcare, including preventive healthcare and sanitisation, promoting education and disaster management respectively.
Coronavirus which hit the country in March last year has literally kept people indoors for almost a year now. A number of leading companies including IT majors, startups, banks, etc, have now taken the charge and decided to bear the vaccination expenses of not just for their employees but their families and dependents too in order to ensure the well being of their staff and employees.
Here are some of the companies who are the trend setter in this area:
TVS Motor Company has announced that it will provide free Covid-19 vaccination to all its employees and their immediate family members. In line with the ongoing government guidelines, the vaccination drive will cover 35,000 direct and indirect company employees across the country.
ICICI Bank has announced that it will provide COVID-19 vaccination for all its employees including their immediate family members free of cost. The bank will reimburse the cost of the two mandated vaccine shots for its employees and their dependent family members.
Capgemini, a global consultancy firm has announced that it will cover the cost of coronavirus vaccines of all eligible employees and their dependents in strict accordance with all the Government-approved protocols.
Flipkart, the e-commerce major will cover the vaccination cost for all Flipkart and Myntra employees and three dependents. The Group has decided to cover 100 per cent of the vaccination cost for all Flipkart and Myntra employees and three dependents. Employees can choose to be reimbursed for the costs of the vaccinations or get them free of charge at a partner hospital. The company has also created a provision for employees to avail a day’s leave to manage the vaccination process and will be allowed to take the Covid special care leave to manage any symptoms post-vaccination.
HDFC Bank has announced that it will bear the cost of vaccination of over 1 lakh employees and their immediate family members against coronavirus. The Bank will reimburse vaccination costs for the two mandated doses.
ReNew Power, a clean energy firm has decided to provide COVID-19 vaccination free of cost to its 1,500 employees as well as their families. Assuming a family of five, back-of-the-envelope calculations indicate that ReNew Power would provide vaccination to around 7,500 people across its 110 locations in India.
Reliance announced that it will bear the vaccination cost for its 1,39,000 employees and their families. In a mail to the employees, Chairperson and founder of Reliance Foundation Nita Ambani said, "Reliance will bear the full cost of vaccination for you, your spouse, your parents, and vaccine-eligible children."
Trident Group, a textile major on Tuesday announced that it will provide free Covid-19 vaccines to all its 14,000 employees and their family members free of charge. Eligible family members include parents, spouse and children of employees.
Škoda Auto Volkswagen India Private Limited (ŠAVWIPL) has announced the commencement of the Covid-19 vaccination drive for all its employees as well as their dependents in line with the ongoing government guidelines. Apart from the on-roll employees, the program will also cover the apprentices and will be working with its suppliers to cover the third-party workers.
Cognizant has announced that it will vaccinate 600,000 people in India including over 200,000 full-time employees and their dependents as well as about 50,000 support staff and their families.
Havells India, a consumer electrical goods maker has said that it will cover the cost of COVID-19 vaccination for all its direct and indirect employees in India.
UpGrad, an Edtech firm, has said it will be covering 100 per cent vaccination costs for its entire staff (full-time, contract and intern) and their families. The vaccination drive will be voluntary for employees and their immediate families, who can avail of it in major cities. The drive will also embrace ex-employees who may seek assistance from UpGrad. Thus, more than 10,000 people comprising self, spouse, kids, and parents of current employees and ex-employees could be benefiting from this move.
Apart from these several other private companies have also committed to covering vaccine costs for their employees and their family members. These include Infosys, Accenture, Mindtree, Sify Technologies, Airtel, etc.
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