Earthmoving and construction equipment major JCB India on Friday said it will support the education of the children of its employees who succumbed to COVID-19 besides extending medical insurance for their families to 10 years as part of a relief package for its staff.

Under the initiative, JCB India said, apart from the term insurance policy benefits, the company will be supporting the education of the children of deceased employees to the tune of Rs 1 lakh per child, per year for their schooling and Rs 2 lakh per child, per year for three years for their graduation.

"The medical insurance for their families has also been extended to 10 years. For contractual employees, there will be one-time support of Rs 3 lakh," JCB India said in a statement.

JCB India CEO and MD Deepak Shetty said, "The past few weeks have been a phase of intense learning. Virtually all our organisational resources were deployed towards supporting the health and safety of our employees and their families. Unfortunately, we also went through the painful phase of losing some of our colleagues to the virus.We are fully committed to supporting their families through a relief package."

The company said, from April, over 2,000 employees and their families have been vaccinated at camps held across its Ballabgarh, Pune and Jaipur facilities. It is now ensuring that all its employees in India are vaccinated over the next few weeks.

With the company witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases in its factories between April and May during the second wave, JCB India said it temporarily paused all manufacturing operations to stop the spread of the virus. It also extended a telemedicine facility for all its employees in different parts of the country.

Over 7,600 tests were conducted during this phase and in addition to managing beds, oxygen and ambulances, JCB created a COVID relief centre on its factory premises, the statement said.