Most of us today believe that we live in a gender neutral society. This however is a myth and there are enough and more instances of some or the other form of bias which still prevails, whether in rural or in urban India, whether at home or at workplace, whether for this reason or that, whether in enormous proportions or minor.
In India, one such existing biaswhich often goes unnoticed is in the form ofunequal number of paid leaves which are granted to a man and to awoman upon the birth of a new-born, at their respective workplaces. There is a visible difference in the treatment of leaves granted when it is the responsibility of both parents to take care of a new-born, albeit in different capacities. These leaves are granted under the labour laws which are codified by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, government of India and arepopularly known as ‘Paternity leave’ and ‘Maternity Leave’ respectively.
In terms of the legislative framework which is applicable in India, currently Maternity leave is offered to working women for a period of 26 weeksunder The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, having been increased from the earlier period of 12 weeks which was the case under the original legislation- The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. This leave of absence is granted to working women across public and private organisations provided that, the female employee has worked for a minimum period of 80 days in the immediately preceding 12 months.In this respect, an employer has absolutely no place to dismiss a female employee for taking maternity benefits under such legislative framework. Also, the employercannot change the terms of service to the woman’s disadvantage during her maternity leave.
Paternity leave on the other hand, is granted to only government employeesby virtue of paternity benefit rules notified by government in 1999, for a period of up to 15 days. As regards the private sector, the male employees are still deprived of this benefit as there is no legislation mandating this requirement in the private sector. It is not that a progressive move towards including this benefit for male employees has not been made at all; right after the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 was enforced, a certain private member’s bill to address the paternity benefit related issues was also put forth in the parliament. This billaimed at ushering gender neutrality by giving leave of absence for a certain number of days even to the father of a new-born child across both private and public sectors. However, the bill did not see the light of day and is still pending in the parliament.
The only silver lining is that even in the absence of a legislation in the private sector for providing paternity benefits,there are a few multinational corporations in India which have offered the much required benefits to their male employees.
The situation globally however is much different and is a lot more advanced. The United Nations Children’s Fund is the first United Nations’ organisation which increased its paternity leaves worldwide from a mere 4 weeks to 16 weeks. Paternity leave is recognised in nearly 23 out of 27 European Union countries which are amongst a few of the progressed nations which have a paternal benefit legislation in place. Then there are some generous countries such as Japan which offers a total of 30 weeks of paid paternity leave and South Korea which offers a total of 53 weeks of paid paternity leaves.That being said, in some of the countries even though there is a prevailing legislation,some fathers are hesitant to take the opportunity of availing this leave due to their concerns around some hurdles which culture or professionmay impose.
Talking from even a statistical point of view, a study conducted by Mckinsey & Company at the beginning of the year 2020 has stated that women do significantly more housework and childcare than men so much so that working women are said to be working double-shifts.
From all of these data points, it seems that it is because of the sheer lack of proper legislation and rules in India that more often than not, child rearing is assumed to be a women’s responsibility. In fact, the extension of maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks seems to be nothing but a reinforcement of the stereotype that child rearing and child care is considered to be a woman’s responsibility. This in turn somewhere or the other reflects on a women’s professional life and career path where some women end up quitting their jobs altogether. A basic start for India would be to have a legislation for paternity leave in place. Such legislation should grant a to-be father a right to avail at least seventy five percent of the total number of leaves granted currently to a to-be motherand such right should be granted regardless of the sector in which the workplace is – public or private. This would be the first step of moving away from a maternity oriented childcare framework towards a parental care framework. This would also give a message to the society and ultimately lead to due correction of the age old gender dynamics which have been set in place.
If we could be a little too optimistic to revamp the legislative framework, it is high time that gender be allowed to play in any role in determining jobs and associated remuneration. Therefore bearing this in mind, we need to have a uniform code in place to introduce the concept of a ‘Parental Leave’ rather than the exploring the thoughts of a gender based distinction in terms of ‘Maternity and Paternity leaves’. It would be a real adulation to await anIndia based on such parameters and rationalism and would help in destigmatising from the society, that only men are the breadwinners of a family.
For we are forgetting that, absence of paternity leaves also robs the to-be fathers the chance of developing the crucial bonding with their new-born and be a part of their very first steps and journey.
