[:en]Inspired by the ideals of Swami Vivekananda and Gandhiji, SEWA Rural, a Non Government Organization has been working since 1980. The purpose of the existence of the organization is to
reach out to poor and underprivileged through a variety of health, education and economic development programmes. The focus of all programmes has been the vulnerable members of the family, viz. the women, children and elderly. Women especially have been at the centre of all
major program objectives.
We believe Men and women are equal and they complement each other. We strongly believe that men and women have equal rights. As such we shall always ensure all our actions are reinforcing women’s rights, with or without legal mandate.
We believe Women have special strengths and special needs. Organization recognizes this unique combination of strengths and needs and attempts to channelize it at work place for
empowerment of their own-selves and in turn help larger society. Our key programs relate to health care, women empowerment and community health focusing on women besides other
programs.
About Great Place to Work®
Great Place to Work®
is the global authority on building, sustaining and recognizing high-trust,
high-performing workplace cultures. It has crafted its perspective by learning from great leaders, surveying millions of employees, and examining thousands of the best workplaces around the
globe. It serves businesses, non-profits, and government agencies in more than 50 countries, across all six continents. Great Place to Work® Institute partners more than 8000 organizations
every year.
Great Place to Work®
Institute has conducted pioneering research on the characteristics of great
workplaces for over 30 years. The finding- the key to creating a great workplace was not a prescriptive set of employee benefits, programmes, and practices, but the building of highquality relationships in the workplace — relationships characterized by trust, pride, and camaraderie. Great Place to Work® Institute’s methodology is recognized as rigorous and objective and is considered as the gold standard for defining great workplaces across business,
academia and government organizations.
The Great Place to Work®
started operations in India in 2003. Every year, it studies more than 700
organizations in India and determines India’s Best Workplaces across 20+ industries.
SEWA Rural is in top 15 Best workplaces for Women Nationally
46% of our employees and large majority of our beneficiaries are female. This has led all our
processes and programs to be sensitive to Women’s needs. These are not just programs, these
are our practices in force for more than 2-3 decades and we have committed ourselves to
provision of the same.These benefits find place in employee handbook and have been and are
being communicated to women employees in different forums. Few of programs are as under:
i. Maternity Benefits:
a. ANC health care including admissions and delivery is free. She gets a special mother
and baby kit with immediate requirements of baby clothes, toy etc. Altering type of
work (field to head quarter, shift to general shift) during later part of pregnancy.
b. Paid 26 weeks off post delivery
c. Crèche- Killol Ghodiyaghar
Recognizing the need of help required by our female employees in taking care of
infant child, Day care center is on campus, with trained attendants to take care of the
infants while their mothers are on duty.
d. Breastfeeding breaks and Part time work up to 1 year
Women employees requiring to take care of infants at home for longer periods
because of family challenges are allowed to opt for serving part time for up to a period
of one year as special dispensation.
e. Mother’s adopting a child were given maternity benefit even prior to inclusion of such
criteria in law
ii. Child care:
Child health care free provision and sick Leave for taking care of sick child
a. Special program ‘kalrav’ for kids of employees;
‘Kalrav’- is cohort of kids of our employees.
Special retreats are organized in summer and winter vacation providing with
educational sessions and teaching extracurricular activities with. Special faculties.
b. Sick leave for Taking care of both set of parents
iii. Fully functional and active Committee against sexual harassment. We have special code of
conduct to protect against any type of unwarranted misconduct leading to feeling of safe
workplace.
This committee is formed with representation from all levels and across functions in the
organization. It meets regularly to handle any issues that come up.
iv. Live Grievance redressal
Take home message for other employers
Employers should appreciate special needs of women, create policies which help them discharge their
responsibilities at work and home effectively. Welcoming, appreciating women employees and
celebrating their life events will help organizations achieve higher engagement. This in turn will give
organization a sincere, hardworking, committed and capable workforce for prolonged period.
It will help create much healthier workforce if employers pay specific attention to women’s strengths,
turn their challenges into employee engagement opportunities, make workplace women friendly and
establish systems to ensure equal opportunities to women. This would be our share of contribution in
creating healthier societies.[:]
