India Inc Initiative: Get Paid Leave For Social Service

[JANASENA]

 

If you are working under a big corporate and interested to work in the field of social service, then chances are that you might be able to pursue your interest while getting a fully paid leave.

According to reports from Times of India, India Inc has started to offer employees “social service leave” — a fully paid sabbatical to carry out social-cum-civic projects for a period of time and that can be even as long as a year.

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What is India Inc?
India Inc. is a common term used by the Indian media to refer to the formal (comprising government and corporate) sector of the nation. It employed 7 percent of the workforce in 2000 and contributed 60 percent of the nominal GDP of the nation.

Employees from Infosys, SAP are taking this leave to carry out social services. Times of Indiareported that an Infosys employee, Sobbuh Hemmati is on a year-long leave and is working as a liaison officer at a school in Kharagpur. He is grooming and helping students from underprivileged section to develop a special set of skills. Infosys has a `Community Empathy Sabbatical Policy’ that gives their employees monetary support and choice to come back to normal work schedule.

SAP has one ‘Social Sabbatical’ policy that gives assignments to employees for a short term to turn SAP’s vision of “helping the world run better and improving people’s lives’ into their personal reality ,” said Gunjan Patel, CSR head at SAP India, to Times of India.

Companies like Maruti Suzuki, Vodafone India, Godrej Industries Ltd also believe that social service today is a key factor for the dynamics of business. That’s why they are allowing their employees to work in those sectors voluntarily or with NGOs working for various social causes.