Meesho has rolled out ‘Cares Campaign’ to help entrepreneurs, employees, and suppliers.

Through ‘Cares Campaign’, has launched multiple initiatives to help its community with medical and financial aid that will offer them with some comfort during these testing times.

Vidit Aatrey, Co-founder & CEO, Meesho, "Entrepreneurs, employees, and suppliers are a huge part of Meesho’s support system and are instrumental to the company’s growth, especially as we scale up. They work in tandem with us as we set out to achieve our ambitious targets and we find it our responsibility to be by their side now, as they deal with COVID-related issues."

· Optional off on Wednesdays: In cognisance of the mental and physical toll the current health crisis has taken on our employees, we are giving everyone the option of taking Wednesdays off during the month of May. And for those who are working, Wednesdays have been declared as a “No meeting day!”

· Advance salary payments: All employees are eligible to opt for advance payment of their salaries in order to keep up with medical expenses.

· Paid leave: Employees who test positive for COVID are eligible to take upto 14 days of paid leave so that they can focus on their recovery. Meanwhile, special unlimited paid caregiver leave is also available to Meeshoites who are taking care of family members with COVID, within the same household.

· Ex gratia payments: The family of any employee who succumbs to COVID-19 would be given ex-gratia payments equivalent to two years’ salary.

· MeeCare reimbursement package: Outside of the INR 3 Lakh insurance that covers hospitalisation bills, an additional reimbursement of upto INR 25,000 is given for all expenses incurred during home quarantine and hospitalisation.

· Reimbursement for institutional and home quarantine: All employees and their dependents will be reimbursed up to INR 20,000 for institutional quarantine and INR 10,000 for home quarantine.

· Vaccination drive: Meesho-sponsored vaccination drive will ensure that all employees and their dependants are vaccinated against COVID no matter where in India they happen to reside.

· Oxygen concentrators for all: Meesho has procured oxygen cylinders that will be kept in all major cities like Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata and Mumbai for anyone in need, with priority given to Meeshoites and their dependents.

· Doctor consultations: Meesho has tied up with various medical partners to ensure that all Meeshoites have access to doctors at all times. For mental health support, Meeshoites can also reach out to the professional counsellors at Your Dost, India’s first online mental health and emotional wellness coach.

· Quarantine stays: We have also partnered with hotels and guest houses for those Meeshoites, who might otherwise be unable to, quarantine themselves.

· COVID Helpline: We have tied up with a team of experienced call center executives dedicated to answering SOS requests for everything ranging from oxygen support to ICU beds across the country.

For Entrepreneurs and Sellers:

• COVID-resources and leads on the Meesho app — The Meesho app has a banner for COVID resources where entrepreneurs can find the most reliable, verified and helpful links to track oxygen concentrators, hospital beds, medicines, and other COVID-related requirements.

• Interest-free loans worth INR 1 crore — Cognizant of the fact that the entrepreneurs are financially impacted by the pandemic, Meesho has declared a corpus of INR 1 crore to offer interest-free loans to eligible entrepreneurs.

• Tie-ups with medical partners to provide free video consultations — With the latest medical partnerships, Meesho entrepreneurs can now book online consultations with doctors and get treated for COVID virtually.

• Penalty for service-level agreement (SLA) waived off — Fully understanding the operational challenges that sellers face during the lockdown, Meesho has been actively waiving off penalties pertaining to breach of supplier SLAs since the last three weeks. Similar waivers will be extended to more sellers in the next 6–8 weeks depending on lockdown restrictions in their respective cities

• Commissions waived off for the foreseeable future — Meesho will waive off all commissions on orders placed in the 4 weeks period starting May 15 for all the smaller sellers which comprises of upto 55% of Meesho’s total active supplier base.

• Payment cycle reduced — Meesho is reducing the payment cycle from 15 days to 8 days specifically for their smaller sellers (fulfilling the GMV criterion mentioned above) for all orders placed in the four weeks period starting May 15.

• Short term loans and overdraft protection — Meesho is also partnering with banks and Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) to provide all sellers with the option of taking short term loans and overdraft protection.