India: Paternity leave will be just a holiday for men, says Maneka Gandhi

Article here. Excerpt:

'As the clamour for enhanced paternity leave grows stronger after the recent passage of the maternity leave bill in Rajya Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi has said that such a legislation will have little impact in India, where men do not even avail their existing leave entitlements to share the responsibility of child care.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Maneka said, “Paternity leave can be considered only if, once the woman goes back to work after her 26 weeks of leave, we find that men are availing their sick leave for a month to take care of the child. Let me see how many men do that. I will be happy to give it but for a man, it will be just a holiday, he won’t do anything.”

It was on Maneka’s insistence that the Ministry of Labour and Employment mooted the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which increases the period of leave for new mothers from the existing 12 weeks to 26 weeks in the organised sector. It also allows 12 weeks of leave to mothers going in for adoption or commissioning a child through surrogacy, and encourages employers to facilitate ‘work from home’ for new mothers.'

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