It’s official. Women working in the private sector shall now be privileged to six and a half months of maternity leave, according to the government. Currently, private firms only offer 12 weeks of maternity leave, but as per the new dictate, this will be scaled up to 26 weeks!
Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi, on Monday, said that the Ministry of Labour has agreed to increase the maternity leave to six-and-a-half months. “We had written to the Labour Ministry asking that the maternity leave be extended taking into account the six months of breastfeeding that is required post childbirth. The labour ministry has agreed to increase it to six-and-a-half months,” said Maneka.
But the six and a half month leave is still a compromise on part of the labour ministry. The WCD ministry had originally proposed eight months or 32 weeks of leave.
“We feel that eight months of maternity leave – for women in government as well as private sectors – is required. We will move a note to the Cabinet Secretariat in this regard. Six months of exclusive breastfeeding is very important to combat malnutrition, diarrhoea and other diseases in infants and to lower infant mortality rate,” said a WCD official.
The government employees have it slightly better, of course. They get to take a two-year leave in phases at any point until the child turns 18. So basically, study holidays to help your child get through class 10 board examinations are already set!
