Zerodha founder and CEO Nithin Kamath announced that his company was running a ‘health programme’ that would give half a month’s bonus to those who had a body mass index of below 25. He went on to add that the average BMI of his team was 25.3 and if it was brought down to 24 by August, then everyone would get another half a month’s worth of bonuses. Zerodha Broking Limited is a company that offers financial services such as retail brokerage, mutual funds, commodities trading and bonds.
“The lowest average BMI or the largest change in average BMI wins. The winner chooses a charity everyone else contributes to. Maybe a health tech company can run the initiative. If you want to do this at your company, do post in the comments.”, he further said.
Naturally, this “brilliant” idea of his received a lot of backlash. He has since clarified, tweeting: “Sharing more context. We have experimented with a bunch of ideas since Covid & WFH to help the team think about their health. Sitting is the new smoking, & the idea has been to nudge everyone to move.”
Many spoke up about BMI not being an accurate indicator of someone’s health and fitness, others talked about the “bright” idea perpetuating an unhealthy and toxic workspace. Kamath, who is supposedly a ‘fitness enthusiast’ himself, added that BMI isn’t the best measure to track health and fitness. But still went ahead and incentivised it.
Also Read: Why the Indian middle class thinks fat shaming is cool
An unscientific method
A person’s BMI is calculated by dividing their weight in kilograms and by their height in metres squared. The issue with using BMI as the sole index for fitness is that it does not take into account one’s fat percentage, muscle mass or bone density. And neither does it incorporate overall body composition, racial and sex differences.
Kamath’s ‘method’ is not only unscientific but insensitive and perpetuates a culture that creates a toxic workplace and is not inclusive (not taking into account eating disorders and other mental health issues like anxiety). Not only is this creating an environment where you are determining someone’s worth by their ‘size’ but also giving them money based on it.
This ‘initiative’ is fatphobic and will make anyone overweight feel as though they are unfit, unhealthy and unworthy. It further perpetuates the outdated notion that fat people are not fit and thin people are.
Also Read: Fat tax — What you didn’t know clothing brands are charging you for
Achieving fitness without body-shaming
Ensuring the fitness and overall health of your employees is a great goal, however, there are ways of doing it without sounding like a body shamer.
Just a few pointers, Mr Kamath, on what you could’ve done instead — free gym memberships, a cult.fit pass for employees to enjoy the benefits, a fitness allowance that employees can avail for various sports or activities, free bicycles, a day off to focus on fitness, paying for therapy sessions, free yoga memberships, yoga classes in office, could’ve gone a long way.
One can only imagine what someone conscious of their weight at Zerodha would feel reading Kamath’s post.
People who are ‘larger’ than accepted societal standards have anyway been conditioned to ‘occupy’ less space and wear less ‘flamboyant’ clothes. It has taken a lot to move away slowly from this culture of glorifying thin bodies – discontinuation of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, models of all sizes walking the ramps and the notion of a beach body including everybody.
And yet we have miles to go. Slow fashion does not incorporate all sizes, and in the event that it does, it is exorbitantly expensive — 26-inch-waist jeans are a lot cheaper than a size 36. Women have often called this the ‘fat tax’.
I grew up hating my body and always assumed that the reason I did not move fast enough on the tennis court or the swimming pool was because of my weight. I was always made to feel that it was my weight slowing me down. Despite losing all the ‘excess’ weight in the most unhealthy manner, I was still not fast enough, because I had lost all my muscle strength too. Kamath’s bright idea will do the same, and perhaps a lot worse.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Srinjoy Dey)