New Maternity Bill redefines Indian motherhood
With the incorporation of the new changes into the existing Maternity Benefit Act 1961, the women in the country will definitely be able to spend more time in child care and in shaping the family. Meanwhile the women lawmakers demanding paternity leave reminds us all, the dual role and equal responsibility shared by both the parents in raising the kids. The provision for paternity leave will sensitise the fathers and their critical need in shaping the early stages of children. Sadly, till date India does not have a law mandating paternity and the country should have enacted one long before. At present, the Government allows only 15 days of paid leave to the father and it is in no way make any impact on the ardous process of child rearing. Arguably, when fathers are given more leave under paternity, this can directly help the mother engaging in paid work. Beyond the paid work, the paternity leave can potentially contribute to the full-fledged development of the family. It is time now that the Government must consider introducing a new bill for paternity leave which will seriously support our women not only at home bit also in office space as well.
With the new amendments to the Act, now women will get 26 weeks against 12 weeks under the previous law. The Maternity Benefit Act 1961 protects the employment of women during the time of her maternity leave and entitles her of a full paid job for taking care of her child. It is applicable to all establishments employing 10 or more employees. For the first time, this bill is making provisions of leave for both adopted and commissioning mothers who will be entitled for maternity benefits and will be able to avail three months of leave. Further an enabling provision inserted in the bill says that if the nature of work permits, a woman may be allowed to work from home after the period of maternity leave. This once again gives respite to many women who are working in such places or offices that can afford them to work from home. Indeed, this can rightly be viewed as a major step for enhancing and engaging the women in the work at ease and also at the same time, the employer is not suffering while waiting for the employee to physically come back to the office. With such innovative and progressive changes, participation of women in work will sharply rise and on the event of maternity leave, they will not be out of sync altogether and can work without much pressure from home. Again, an office with at least 50 workers will have to provide crèche facilities within a certain distance and four visits should be allowed in a day for the women, will take our mothers a long way in building their career. However this amendment will only help women those who are working in the organized sector, numbering around 1.8 million of them. Therefore, the vast labour force employed in the unorganized sector across the country will still be facing the trouble for whom there will be no uniform law. In the case of the Factories (Amendment) Bill 2016, the approved amendments will bring a huge boost to the manufacturing sector wherein the Government is looking for massive foreign direct investment. Also the relief given to the womenfolk can encourage many more of them taking up jobs in the organized sectors and simultaneously, giving more time to their children as well.