Cars24 has announced a revamped maternity policy that extends support beyond its existing 26 weeks of paid maternity leave. The policy includes a structured return-to-work programme, flexible working arrangements and career safeguards focused on supporting long-term career continuity after motherhood.
Under the new framework, employees can return through a phased transition that begins with flexible work-from-home arrangements before gradually moving to hybrid work.
The policy also includes counselling support, nursing breaks, childcare assistance, re-entry planning and regular HR check-ins to make the transition back to work more structured and predictable.
The company has also introduced measures to help protect career continuity during maternity. Leave will continue to count towards tenure, employees will retain at least the performance rating they held before going on leave, with future ratings based on post- return performance, and defined placement mechanisms have been introduced if organisational changes affect an employee’s role or location during her absence.
How does it work
● Months 0–6: 26 weeks of paid leave. No work contact is expected unless the employee chooses it.
● Months 6–9: Work from home on her own schedule, with no fixed office days.
● Months 9–12: Hybrid working, with two office days a week.
● Up to month 15: Nursing breaks and childcare support continue
The initiative, internally known as Care’eHer, was shaped through conversations with women across Cars24. Rather than asking what maternity leave should look like, the discussions focused on what returning to work should feel like and how organisations can better support women through one of the biggest transitions in their professional lives.
The announcement forms part of Cars24’s broader effort to build a more inclusive workplace and strengthen female representation across the organisation. Earlier this year, Cars24 Founder, Vikram Chopra publicly acknowledged that women represented around 14% of its India workforce and committed to improving that over time.
Since then, it has expanded women-led initiatives across the business, including launching an all-women Auto Hub in Delhi NCR, while continuing to rethink workplace practices that help attract, retain and grow more women leaders.
Vikram Chopra, Builder, Cars24, said, “For a long time, the conversation around maternity has centred on one question: how much leave is enough. We wanted to ask a different one. What happens when women come back? Careers aren’t built over six months, and they shouldn’t lose momentum because of six months away. If we genuinely want more women to build long-term careers, the support cannot end when the leave does.”
Cars24 says the redesigned framework reflects a broader belief that building a more inclusive workplace requires more than hiring. It requires designing policies around the realities of people’s lives, ensuring that major life milestones do not become career setbacks.
