INTRODUCTION
It’s 2024, and many of us believe that we live in an egalitarian society. But is it the truth? We need to think about it, there are still many biases in society be it in cities or village areas. This discrimination not only occurs in the general lives of people but also at a professional level in various forms like for example decision-making, division of roles, framing of various benefit policies to the employees, etc.
One of the most overlooked biases is paid leave that is granted to any new parents at their workplaces. These are often ignored although both the parents share equal responsibility in taking care of the newborn, yet there are discriminatory leaves given to both male and female parents. Two questions need to be addressed first, why only mothers are entitled to paid leave? and second, why only government sector employees are given paternity leave? This blog will try to primarily answer these two questions throughout.
LEGISLATIONS FOR PATERNITY AND MATERNITY LEAVES IN INDIA
In India, these leaves are granted under the Ministry of Labor and Employment, the law under which this is governed is Indian Labour Law. Currently, there is The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, legislation that offers pregnant working women a maternity leave for 26 weeks. (Earlier it was 12 weeks of maternity leave under the Maternity Benefit Act, of 1961). However, these leaves are granted only if the female employee has worked at her workplace for a minimum period of 80 days in the immediately preceding 12 months. This legislation prohibits the employer from terminating the female employee or changing the terms of service just because she took the said maternity leave.
According to the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules 1972, paternity leaves are granted to the employees of the public sector only that too up to 15 days only. Yet in the private sector, male employees are still deprived of this right. A few bills were formed to look after this issue but unfortunately didn’t pass.[1]
NEED FOR PATERNITY LEAVE?
Paternity leave is leave granted to the father after or shortly before the birth of his child. We have regulations for maternity leave but not for paternity leave, which needs to be thought about because of the following reasons, Paternity leave would help fathers to spend valuable time with their newborn baby and have a good bond with them in their early days this can lead to a strong foundation to with their babies, also they can spend more time taking care of newborn and let their wife have proper rest. Secondly, it helps in breaking down the gender roles and creating active participation in parenting also it leads to more satisfaction for the father by achieving a proper work-life balance. Many such factors would be satisfied with the application of paternity leave.
WHY IS THERE A NEED FOR MALE EMPLOYEES TO GET PATERNITY LEAVE?
While understanding all things to be taken under consideration at the time of forming paternity benefits laws or the inclusion of paternity benefits under Indian Labour Laws, we need to understand the workings of the family or in short the modern nuclear families which are usually found in cities, these families consist of mainly the father, the mother and their children and taking care of the children is a shared responsibility which needs to be fulfilled by both the parents and granting paternity leaves would help the working parents maintain the work-life balance and help the parents complete their responsibilities
However, it is to be understood that granting paternity leave to only mothers would not suffice the problem it should be given to both parents. This would ensure that taking care of children is not just the duty of the mother but also of the father, and if the paternity benefits get included in the labour laws it would have a binding value on the institutions. For example, currently, only the government sector and a few multinational companies provide paternity leaves but if any specific rules are made regarding this it would lead to many changes in the socioeconomic conditions of not just the employees but also of the institution they are working at. Family-friendly policies should be adopted by the companies They would make sure that the employees can fulfil their role as parents at the start of childhood and also maintain the right balance between their office commitments and home commitments. We have an example of a famous company, Spotify, offering six months’ leave to both parents and no questions are being asked and the company is doing pretty well.[2] This company has set an example of how giving paternity leave does not affect the working of the company. Moreover, the companies providing equal parental leaves are benefited in some or the other way as it supports the employee’s struggle with work-life balance eventually the employees would think that the company thinks about their employees and this would attract more and more talent and retain the workforce of the company.
WHY SHOULD THESE LAWS BE GENDER-NEUTRAL?
Gender neutrality is something that is most talked about in the 21st century it is an ideal form of the socio-political condition in the society. The question arises as to why shouldn’t the benefits of paternity be gender-neutral as well. Taking care of the child is not solely the duty of the mother but the stereotypes have in a way forced women to take care of the child and men to work and earn money. But in today’s time careers are equally important to both the parents and on the other hand caretaking of the child is also important so this needs to be done by both parents keeping a balance between them.
Equal paternity leave supports women, it relieves the pressure on working mothers by providing additional support at home in taking care of the child, this would help especially women in managing their professional and personal lives simultaneously
PATERNITY LEAVE IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT
According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) family database table, In Japan, 5.14% of Japanese fathers took paternity leave in 2017. [3]
In Canada, parents can take up to 5 weeks of paternity leave within the first year of a child’s birth or adoption. There are many more examples of countries having paternity laws in place.
CONCLUSION
India should look forward to making paternity laws, companies should be encouraged to adopt progressive paternity policies voluntarily. Public awareness is to be made that not only mothers have the responsibility to take care of newborns but also fathers share equal responsibility. It’s high time that India should have paternity laws.
Author(s) Name: Mansi Mandawgad (ILS Law College, Pune)
Reference(s):
[1]‘Need for paternity benefits in India; A resolve to create equal partnership in parenting’ <Need for Paternity benefits in India: A resolve to create equal partnership in parenting (dailypioneer.com)>accessed on 10 March 2024
[2] ‘ Why longer paternity leave is a step forward for gender equality ‘<Why longer paternity leave is a step forward for gender equality | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)> accessed on 10 March 2024
[3] ‘Why longer paternity leave is a step forward for gender equality ’<Why longer paternity leave is a step forward for gender equality | World Economic Forum (weforum.org)> accessed on 10 March 2024
