Child Care Leave

• HPCL has introduced Child Care Leave for female employees with a view to facilitate female employees to take care of their children up to 5 years of age. Women employees can avail Child Care Leave up to 730 calendar days twice during the entire service and would be restricted to first two children.

Adoption Leave

• HPCL has introduced Adoption Leave for female employees who legally adopt children. Maximum 84 days leave can be availed to adopt a child less than 3 months of age and 60 days leave for a child more than 3 months of age but less than of 5 years of age.

Surrogacy Leave

• HPCL has also introduced Surrogacy Leave in case the female employees obtain child thru Surrogacy. Maximum of 84 days leave is granted for this purpose.

Upon enactment of the "Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013" and the rules framed under the same, a comprehensive guideline dated 15/05/2014 was circulated across all locations of the Corporation, to ensure that Corporation is a model employer, and since then has been ensuring strict compliance of the provisions under this Act. "Any Act of sexual harassment of any woman at her work place" has been included as a Misconduct in the CDA Rules and "Any Act of Sexual Harassment at Workplace" was included as a misconduct into the Standing Orders of Marketing Establishments, Mumbai and Visakh Refinery. Any complaints with respect to the same, results in Domestic Enquiry Proceedings against the said perpetrator (who is an employee of the Corporation) under the said Rules.

As per Factories Act and Shops & Establishment Act,restriction has been placed on working hours of women (suitable working hours have been introduced for women employees). It was also ensured that proper infrastructure is in place conducive for working of women employees at location.

HPCL is the first PSU to implement Special Day Off for women employees during Menstrual Period. All lady officers working in night shift can avail of one SDO every month, if their night shift duties coincide with the monthly menstrual cycle. This leave is over and above all other leaves that applies to all employees.

'SPARSH' is a Healthy Maternity Program that offers free of cost, psychological coaching service for female employees and spouses of male employees. The initiative contributed in enhancing the wellness of working mothers' by offering psychological counselling service and self-help resources towards integrating motherhood with work life. Support infrastructure like Creche have been set up to further support the specific needs of women employees. Creche enables female employees to return to work sooner after the birth of their child and support them in the growing years of their children.

Paramarsh is a 'Consult in Confidence' program available to employees. Fully qualified and professional counsellors can be approached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week through multiple modes like Toll free Number, e-mail, Mobile App or website for seeking advice on any areas causing stress and anxiety. These counsellors are trained to lend a sympathetic ear, offer practical advice and provide professional counselling on a wide range of work related, personal or family concerns.

Lady officers are being trained in self-defence including Martial Arts through the initiative - Kavach. Keeping in view the safety measures several structural changes are being done at the workplace premise. CCTV camera surveillance, Safety locks, Safety alarms, Secret alarms, Safety doors, Washrooms and change rooms, special seating zones are being created for the lady officers working during night shift. Illumination all around within the refinery as well as outside the refinery on the roads was enhanced many folds. Women employees of CISF are posted at duty at locations with women employees.

Corporation invests in training and development of its women workforce in a focused manner. Large number of women officers attend focused training programs designed for women and conducted by Internal and external agency in India or abroad which includes international leadership programs, in addition to gender neutralbehaviour and technical programs.

HPCL encourages its women employees to be part of WIPS and get updates on women related issues. HPCL is a corporate member and participates in its national and regional events. Women employees are nominated for the training / conferences conducted by WIPS and many employees are active in the forum towards achieving its objective.

As part of the initiative of International Labor Organization(ILO) under aegis of SCOPE for encouraging woman participation in workforce and building enabling environment for their career advancement, HPCL has committed two senior level officers as group of 12 champions to contribute.

A platform for women employees & female family members which provides opportunity to them to engage in different activities like philanthropic drives namely visits to old age homes, organizing events for the disabled children etc. The platform has been successful in offering a greater focus on women's issues in health, workplace, and home.

Over the years, HPCL has undertaken various CSR initiatives for the welfare of women especially in rural areas. These include academic, material and social support to girl children from tribal and backward areas, provision of educational infrastructure in girl schools, construction of sanitation infrastructure (toilet blocks, sanitary napkin vending machines and incinerators for girl students in schools), scholarships, awareness generation activities as part of Swachhta campaigns, employment enhancing skill development in various trades such as tailoring, beautician, data entry operators, front desk associates etc. and Free LPG Connection for women under Pradhan Mantri UjjwalaYojana (PMUY) scheme.

Project 'Nanhi Kali' contributes to education of girl child and women empowerment in tribal and migrant communities through proper academic, material and social support. This results in reducing the school dropout and holistic development of girl child. More than 1 lakh adolescent girls have benefited from this program as on March 2020.

Project Unnati provides basic computer education to underprivileged students across the country. HPCL has benefitted more than 6,500 girl students from various govt./govt. aided schools during 2019-20.

Project Swavalamban provides skill training in industry oriented trade to enhance employability. During 2019-20, HPCL has reached out to 840 women with its centers in different locations across the country and contributed to Skill development to the unemployed youth and women under Project Swavalamban.

EDP is a one-month residential program that consists of selecting the right candidates using tests and interviews, bringing attitudinal change and providing them with knowledge and entrepreneurship skills for setting up and running a business and thereby enabling transformation from job-seekers to job-creators. HPCL has run two batches in 2017 including one batch exclusively for women. Thirty five (35) SC/ST women entrepreneurs were developed under EDP phase II.