Recently last month, NITI Aayog member V K Paul said that both the private and public sectors should consider enhancing the maternity leave for women workers from six months to nine months.
The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed by the Parliament in 2017 entitling paid maternity leave of 26 weeks, up from earlier 12 weeks.
“Both private and public sector need to sit together to think about increasing the maternity leave of the mothers from present six months to nine months,” FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) said in a statement quoting Paul.
According to the statement, Paul said the private sector should help the NITI Aayog to design the comprehensive care of the children by opening more creches for children for better upbringing as well as doing the needful for the elderly care.
“As millions of care workers will be needed in the future, we have to develop systematic soft and hard skilling training,” Paul added.
FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) president Sudha Shivkumar said the global care economy, the paid and unpaid labour related to caregiving such as childcare, elder care, and domestic chores, is a critical sector that enhances economic growth, gender equity, and women’s empowerment.
Care work is economically valuable but globally undervalued, she added.
“In India, the biggest lacunae is that we lack a system for properly identifying care economy workers, and relative to other nations, India’s public spending on the care economy is extremely low,” she said.
Quick Capsule
- Vide Section 5 of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, as amended in 2017, the Government has increased paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks of which not more than eight weeks shall precede the date of expected delivery.
- Depending upon the nature of work assigned to a woman, Section 5(5) of the Act provides for work from home for such period and on such conditions as the employer and the woman may mutually agree.
- Maternity leave for children beyond the first two will continue to be 12 weeks.
- The Code on Social Security, 2020 has the provisions for enhancement of paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks, provision for mandatory crèche facility in establishments having 50 or more employees, permitting women workers in the night shifts with adequate safety measures, etc.
Credit: PTI Inputs
