India emerges as a nation to give the maximum leave after Canada and Norway

Parliament finally cleared the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill 2016 on March 9. According to the Bill, the period of maternity leave for women has been enhanced to 26 weeks from 12 weeks earlier. And the entire leave will be paid for by the employer. The concession is applicable for women working in the organized sector, and any organization employing 10 or more people will have to abide by the new rule.

The Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Bandaru Dattatreya, brought up the Bill in the Lok Sabha, which was passed by a voice vote. The Bill had already been passed by the Rajya Sabha in August 2016.

The timing of the Bill was significant as it came just a day after the International Women’s Day on March 8. Once the Bill becomes a law (after getting the final seal of approval from the President), the provisions will be a big boon for around two million women in India.

However, significantly, the more-than-six-months’-paid leave is allowed for the first two children only. If a woman working in the organized sector decides to go for a third child, the earlier rule of 12 weeks will apply.

With Canada allowing 50 weeks and Norway 44 weeks of maternity leave, respectively, India joins them as the third nation with 26 weeks.

The new Bill also mandates that maternity leave of 12 weeks be given to mothers adopting a child below the age of three months. The same shall apply to “commissioning mothers”.

The Bill also says that organisations employing 50 or more persons will need to provide crèche facilities to these women, and that too within a prescribed distance. Mothers will visit the crèche up to a maximum of four times during working hours for tending to the child.

Further, if there is an opportunity that the concerned woman could do her office work from home, she must be allowed to make full use of it, the Bill says.

However, the Bill has already led to a debate whether the maternity leave will impact the employment opportunities of working women, especially in the private sector, which may not like paying them a free salary for around six months. There are also cries for a paternity leave as legislators feel the father has an equal, if not more, role to play in taking care of the child in today’s era of nuclear families.

—India Legal Bureau