The Plum Guide to

Women's Health in
the Workplace

www.plumhq.com

@getplumhq
@getplumhq
plumhq

Index

Introduction

01

Maternity 

04

Sexual and reproductive health

08

Infertility 

11

Conclusion 14

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / INDEX 00

Introduction

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Introduction 01

Introduction
And if facts do not sway you,
They say numbers make convincing arguments,
so here are three stats: here are three accounts:

-9%
Ishmeet is a 33-year-old writer whose
menstruation pain is so intense she has spent days
being bedridden since her teen years. She suffers from

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, female employment in India has dysmenorrhea. The company she was employed with

dropped by 9% in 2022. - The World Bank wanted her to work from the office, even in agony.

40-old software engineer Savithri

experiences intense pain every month in the middle of

51.44% her period cycle. All her life, Savithri has gone to the
office and worked while struggling with this pain. Her
previous workplace expected her to show up for work.

Women’s employability is at 51.44% - The Union Budget Statistics

Nidhi*, a 37-year-old dentist employed at a

private hospital in Mumbai, had severe endometriosis

52%
that led to unbearably painful periods. The
endometriosis ultimately led to infertility, which
required IVF – an expensive procedure for which her

of women say they struggle to manage their health with employer offered no insurance covers.

work - Plum
*Names changed to protect identities

Plu m / T h e P lu m G u i d e to W o m e n ' s H e a lt h i n t h e W o r k p l ac e / Introduction 02

We can't build equitable companies without a strong

representation of women in our teams. And to do that, we need

to make our workplaces more welcoming to women.

While these recommendations aren’t prescriptive, we hope

Over the last year, we’ve researched multiple aspects of
they offer the context and nuance you need to make
women’s health – primarily maternity, sexual health, and
informed decisions about women’s health in the workplace.
infertility. We spoke to experts, dug deep into our data, and

conducted multiple surveys.

This report comprises our findings and recommendations for

making employee health benefits more inclusive for women.

While there are a million things that need to be addressed

(pay parity, representation, safety), this report is about

health for two reasons:

01. As an employee benefits organization, health is the

one area where we can offer nuanced insights

02. Health is as good a place to start as any

Plu m / T h e P lu m G u i d e to W o m e n ' s H e a lt h i n t h e W o r k p l ac e / Introduction 03

Maternity

Plu m / T h e P lu m G u i d e to W o m e n ' s H e a lt h i n t h e W o r k p l ac e / m at e r n i t y 04
Context

₹ 45,000 – 55,000 Standalone retail

The average cost of childbirth in tier policies for maternity
are non-existent

1 cities and metros in India at in India.

private hospitals

₹ 70,000 - 2,00,000
90
Days

Retail health insurance

policies have a 90-day
waiting period from
The cost of C-sections in private the time of child-birth
for the baby to get
hospitals, depending on the level of insurance.
complications.

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Maternity 05

Group health insurance is a great opportunity for employers to

stand by female employees and female spouses.

And yet,

Maternity is barely insured by India’s Maternity’s under-insured by India’s employers.

employers: Only 56% of companies offer The average maternity limit across industries is
56%
maternity benefits to their team. INR 52,000 for normal delivery and INR 55,000

for C-sections

Recommendations

We recommend that the ideal maternity benefits

should include:

Minimum coverage up to Rs. 1,00,000 for Surrogacy and adoption leave policies and

tier-one citie benefit

Same-sex partner maternity and leave

Baby day covers from day one benefits

Paternity leave and benefits.

Plu m / T h e P l u m G u i d e to W o m e n ' s H e a lt h i n t h e W o r k p l ac e / M at e r n i t y 06
 15% of Plum’s customers have taken

“ Companies today are in a

position to do much better for their
employees. This is not about
covers between Rs. 1,00,000 and Rs.
1,25,000 for maternity.
These companies include Twilio, Mintmesh,
insurance alone, this is an Evenflow, Vonage, and Ironsides.
opportunity for us to kindle
conversations around workplace
See how your maternity benefits fare. Book a
equity, social justice and forward
thinking. 

free benchmarking call

We seem to be making it harder for
women to return to work after
giving birth. Companies have a
responsibility towards this end, first
by having clear-cut policies and
then implementing them with
“
passion and without prejudice.
Abhishek Poddar

CEO, Plum

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Maternity 07

Sexual and
Reproductive
Health

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Sexual and Reproductive Health 08
Context
As the stress of work increases, its impact on
women’s reproductive and sexual health goes
remarkably high, with disorders like Polycystic
“ From the very beginning, even
when we were 20-30 employees, we
were very clear that we wanted to
Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), Endometriosis, etc., put employees first.

leading to infertility among working women.

As an organisation, we have always
2.5 crore women struggle with endometriosis, had an active insurance plan to
2.5Cr which comes with unbearable pain,
headaches, nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, and
ensure that our employees have a
even infertility stress-free environment.

Nearly 20%, or one in five, women in India have

We spoke to our employees
PCOS, a leading cause of infertility in women internally and asked them if they
would go through IVF if there was

The prevalence of dysmenorrhea, or

an option to do that. A lot of
employees responded positively
“
excruciating periods, in India could be as high
and so we included that.


87.8%
as 87.8%
Chinmayanand Kottali

Assistant HR Manager, Darwinbox

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Sexual and Reproductive Health 09
Recommendations
Minimal/no restrictions on procedures, and The option of free telehealth consultations
no exclusion of treatments in your employee including mental health
health insurance policy.

A period leave policy for people who Inclusive workplaces that come with
menstruate  sanitary pad vending machines in the
washroom
washroom facilities for wome
readily available meds to help manage
menstruation pain 



42% of Plum’s customers – including 20+

Indian unicorns – offer telehealth on top
of their employee benefits.

Talk to us to find out how you can build a truly inclusive employee benefits policy

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Sexual and Reproductive Health 10
Infertility

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Infertility 11

03
Context
Given that conditions like PCOS, dysmenorrhea Recommendations
and endometriosis lead to infertility, it makes We recommend that employers offer
sense for our final section to be about this comprehensive infertility coverage with:
condition that affects over 12–18 million couples
in India, every year.
Infertility cases are on the rise and so is the cost All relevant Assisted Reproduction
of treatments. Techniques (ARTs) for men and women

The cost of Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)

and In-vitro fertilization (IVF) range between INR Inclusion of out-patient treatments in
1,00,000 to INR 4,00,000 with no guarantee of group medical cover policies
success

Couples undertake these treatments more

than once, which can be both expensive and Holistic healthcare consultations
mentally draining through telehealth

This is yet another opportunity for organizations to build

genuinely equitable organizations, and despite that 



less than 1% of corporates in India offer infertility coverage

under Group Health Insurance. Maternity covers do not include
IVF treatments.

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Infertility 12

 2% of Plum’s customers offer

“
comprehensive IVF coverage.
. Today, an IVF treatment costs
around Rs. 1.5 lakhs, laparoscopy To find out where you stand, book a free
around Rs. 75,000, and a
hysterectomy costs anywhere from benchmarking session with one of our
Rs 1.32 lakh to Rs. 2.75 lakh. 

insurance experts.
Companies should look at an ideal
cover with no restrictions on any
procedures, no exclusion of
treatments. Under a
comprehensive policy, no
treatment, even if considered
“
elective, will be rejected.
Kriti Rastogi

Placements at Plum

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Infertility 13

Conclusion

Plu m / T h e P lu m G u i d e to W o m e n ' s H e a lt h i n t h e W o r k p l ac e / Co n clus i o n 14

Group health insurance is a
great opportunity for Maternity
employers to stand by female
Our recommendation
employees and female spouses.
Minimum coverage up to Rs. 1,00,000 for
tier-one citie
We’re urging our insurance partners to redefine the insurance
structure, besides counselling our clients to make their group Baby day covers from day one
health insurance policies more inclusive-with coverage for
LGBTQ, no-capping on maternity benefits, parental coverage,
holistic healthcare consultation, and more.

Inclusive of
We strongly advocate a higher benchmark for PCOS and Surrogacy and adoption leave policies
infertility benefits in group health insurance. and benefit
Same-sex partner maternity and leave
benefits
If you felt the report hid the takeaways in all the Paternity leave and benefits.
details, here’s a more concise view of our
recommendations

Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Conclusion 15

 Sexual and reproductive health Infertility

Our recommendation Our recommendation

Minimal/no restrictions on procedures, All relevant Assisted Reproduction
and no exclusion of treatments in your Techniques (ARTs) for men and women
employee health insurance policy.

Inclusion of out-patient treatments in

A period leave policy for people who group medical cover policies
menstruate 

Holistic healthcare consultations

The option of free telehealth consultations
through telehealth
including mental health

Inclusive workplaces that come with

sanitary pad vending machines in the Let’s work towards employee health that’s truly inclusive, simple,
washroom and accessible.
washroom facilities for wome
readily available meds to help
manage menstruation pain 



Plum / The Plum Guide to Women's Health in the Workplace / Conclusion 16

About Plum
Plum is an employee health insurance platform that provides
health benefits to corporations.

The company is on a mission to accelerate the adoption of

health insurance in India by making employee health insurance
accessible, affordable, and usable for employees.

It is re-imagining the health insurance stack and accelerating

the penetration of health insurance in India to 100%.

Plum aims to reach a milestone of 10 million lives insured by 2025.

Plum is backed by Tiger Global and Sequoia Capital.

Speak to our experts

www.plumhq.com

@getplumhq
@getplumhq
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