In his series of Tweets, Kamath talked about this health initiative to pay a half-month salary as a bonus to anyone with a BMI of less than 25
Repersentational image. I Yunmai/Unsplash
Online broking start-up Zerodha co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath made a ‘healthy’ announcement for his company’s staff on the occasion of World Health Day (7 April). He declared that any employee with a BMI (body mass index) of less than 25 will get half a month’s salary as a bonus. This scheme is also applicable to staff members who will lose weight. Kamath mentioned that his firm is running this “fun health program” to encourage employees to remain healthy.
In his series of Tweets, Kamath talked about this health initiative to pay a half-month salary as a bonus to anyone with a BMI of less than 25. He also mentioned that the average BMI of his employees is 25.3 and they need to reduce it to below 24 by August to receive the bonus. He further added that this scheme is going to be a fun competition with other companies.
In another tweet, Kamath inflated the rules of the challenge asserting that the lowest average BMI or the largest change in average BMI will be declared the winner. The winner will get to choose a charity to which everyone else needs to contribute. Through his tweet, he also suggested health tech companies run this kind of initiative to mark the World Health Day.
Soon, his Twitter threads got the eyes of the users across social media. They are doubting if the idea will push people toward body-shaming and fatphobia. Some of them also stated that BMI may not be the healthiest parameter to track health and fitness at all. However, defending his opinion, Kamath mentioned it as the easiest step to take initially.
The challenge can be seen as an addition to the company’s existing ’12-month get-healthy goal’ programme that Kamath announced last year to encourage people to prioritise health amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the programme, everyone reaching their health goal would get a chance to take part in a lottery worth 10 lakh and also would get one month’s salary as a bonus.
The CEO also organised yoga sessions and made mental health counsellors available for his employees during the lockdown. The initiative, however, was quite successful but not broad-based.
While Kamath’s gesture of last August was praised by all, his current step generated a mixed opinion on the internet. Here’s what users are thinking about the health challenge:
What do you think of Nithin Kamath’s fun health initiative?