NEW DELHI: As Rajya Sabha passed the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016, on Thursday, extending maternity leave to six-and-a-half months, the Ministry of Women and Child Development is now pushing for mandatory childcare leave for to fathers too.
Sources told The Sunday Standard that Maneka Gandhi, the Minister for Women and Child Development, has already initiated the process of a provision for paternity leave as part of the rules of the Maternity Benefit Bill by writing to the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Cabinet Secretariat. The rules of the Bill will be drafted later once it becomes a legislation after it is also passed the Lok Sabha.
“We are pitching for a system where it would be mandatory for the new father to get leave of upto one month, if he so desires,” the sources said.
Earlier, the members of the Upper House had demanded paternity leave when the Bill was being debated. If responsibilities are shared there is a better domestic balance, they argued, and if men too are given leave following childbirth then there would be less discrimination against women at the workplace. Anu Aga, a Rajya Sabha, said, “Paternity leave is important because men leave childcare entirely to the mother and then glorify motherhood.”