Female employees in Priyanka's Purple Pebble Productions get new set of benefits

Priyanka Chopra

In an industry that remains largely male-dominated, Priyanka Chopra is triggering a change of sorts with small but significant steps. After introducing pay parity to create a gender-neutral workforce earlier this year, the actor, on her birthday today, is putting into effect a new set of benefits for the female employees of her studio, Purple Pebble Productions.

Having established herself as a force to reckon with in her field, Priyanka firmly believes that women should not have to compromise on their life choices to achieve professional success. It was this belief that has led her to introduce flexible timings for working mothers and special benefits during maternity leave.

Priyanka's mother and business partner Dr Madhu Chopra says, "Since 80 per cent of our female staff is married, we had to keep their interests in mind. The idea was simple - why should women's life choices become professional hurdles? The policy of flexible timings for mothers was set in place by Priyanka, but fine-tuned by senior members of our company."

Madhu says it is the fierce feminist in Priyanka that makes her want to create an environment where women feel "safe and loved". She adds that besides providing them maternity leave, the company also offers monetary assistance. "We give 12 weeks' maternity leave and financial assistance for care," she says, adding that they are working towards developing an in-house crèche for their employees. Ask her if men enjoy similar benefits and she says, "That's the rule of gender parity. One of our marketing executives took paternity leave of four weeks."

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