Responsible banding — continuation
Same-sex partner medical benefit provided by corporates in India does not involve government agencies. It is a business deal between the organisation and the insurance agency. There are multiple ways a corporate negotiates while purchasing group policies for their employees. The insurance company is not liable for the declaration the employee makes about their partner and it is something the employer deals with. Same-sex partner medical benefit is in place for more than three years in India. For long the insurance provider details were kept secret from public. Although everyone knew who they were and since there wasn’t any public details on it no one could approach the insurance agencies to avail the benefit privately. The Lalit hotels is the first company who mentioned the name of their insurance provider publicly. I took the opportunity and reached out to ICICI Lombard and asked them to provide couple insurance for my partner and I. They said they do not have an option to provide couple insurance for same-sex partners since there isn’t any column to establish our relationship in their application form. This wasn’t a news for me, and was an expected answer. Where is the ripple effect here on the insurance companies, who are also employers, from the queer community? It is important to have public discussion to make insurance companies extend their service to queer couples who aren’t privileged enough to have them covered through their employers. At the same time is it also important to hold insurance companies accountable when a queer person is denied service.
Coming to the adoption benefit for queer persons; government agencies are involved in adoption process. There are extensive legal steps to adopt a child. When we cannot have a simple insurance policy that does not involve government agencies, it is important to understand how adoption benefit works for queer couples in India. Especially when same-sex/gender couples are banned from adopting as a couple.
It is only fair on the part of the LGBTQIA+ community to seek more information from organisations that announce their benefits publicly as a branding effort. The queer friendly branding also makes it look like queer persons have no issues in workplace, whereas the unemployment rate and workplace harassment of queer persons are high. Also when we do not have job security and labour law that protects queer persons in the workplace in India it becomes critical to have a two way conversation where the community is involved. This also helps the organisation’s effort to be seen as a genuine step as inclusion and not a pink washing effort.
This note is a continuation of Responsible branding is part of inclusion.
