Country’s largest FMCG Company, Hindustan Unilever, has announced an initiative to educate and generate consciousness among its female employees as well as women in its partner networks about issues around safety at work, home and public spaces.

According to this initiative, the company would offer psychological counselling, keen support helplines, awareness generation training, and help to reach out to women’s cells and other fretful authorities.

The initiative will cover around 100,000 women working across the company’s supply chain, third party factories, and distributors
Anuradha Razdan, executive director at HUL states,“Next we will cover the outer core of 100,000 women – they will have access to a toll-free number run by our NGO partner who will give them counselling support and other support like connecting with police, authorities and other legal support, etc., if they need.”

The company had recently thrown a gender-neutral policy that pursues to protect and grant relief to employees who face physical and emotional abuse beyond the workplace, such as in their homes or other public spaces, including online mediums.

HUL was planning for the hiring of, 2,000 women on the shop floor over the next three years in some of its most remote locations. “As government started to allow women in night shifts, we have women in our factories in West Bengal and hence we want to broad base our effort (on women’s safety and gender balance),” Anuradha adds.

Conferring to mental health experts, a confined life, prolonged work from home and increasing stress levels due to the pandemic have led to a sheer rise in domestic violence in recent times.

Anuradha states, “As the company tries to bring in more women across different cadres of the workforce, there is a conscious approach to prepare the women and to educate their families and the communities around them about women’s safety, including issues of domestic violence, which can have an impact on work.”

The consciousness sessions will be gender neutral and will be open for male employees and to spouses and daughters.