Help Support Retail Employees and their Families Impacted by COVID-19

India has been in a complete lockdown since March 25th. Its 1.3 billion people confined to their homes with the exception of those providing essential services, some of which are the Kirana store owners, grocery employees, and delivery personnel.

Due to this, an economic slowdown has hit the Indian Retail Sector especially those in the non - essential services of retail. A huge number of employees working in the Indian retail sector – Traditional, Modern, Formal, and in-formal are most likely to lose their employment or not receive their salaries in the period of the next 3 months. The average salary in Modern retail is about Rs 11,000 & traditional retail stands at Rs 7,500. In a large number of families, the associates are the sole breadwinners of their families and due to the prevailing conditions, their families might face huge distress economically, financially, and mentally.  

(Source: Prepared with inputs from Professionals from the retail industry via RAI)

We have setup a relief fund to offer and provide sustenance support to deserving retail associates and their families over the next 3 months until the COVID-19 situation comes back to normalcy. We will identify retail employees who have no means of income post-April 2020 and provide them with an income bridge for 3 months until they are able to seek alternate employment. We will leverage government schemes for short term relief as well as use the opportunity to link the beneficiaries and their families to long-term financial health solutions such as insurance and pension.

The beneficiaries (retail employees) will also be on-boarded onto the TRRAIN Circle mobile app (an app to help and enable a better life for the frontline employees employed in retail & another sector) to have access to over the phone counseling services, additional financial services, and E-learning courses to develop skills & disbursement of financial aid

Through the Relief Grant, we will be offering to the beneficiaries:

• Rs.4000 per beneficiaries over a period of 3 months

• Enrollment to Governments of India Relief schemes for grants starting from Rs.1000/-

· To support the livelihoods and ensure emotional & financial well-being of retail employees during the long term social, economic and health impacts due to COVID-19

· To support at least 5000 retail employees and their families by raising funds with the help of the public.

This is a rapid response funding for retail associates affected by COVID-19 initiated by Trust for Retailers & Retail Associates of India (TRRAIN)