BENGALURU: The joy of motherhood is soon expected to come with a bonus of extended leave period. In a tête-à-tête with Economic Times, a senior labour ministry official has shed light on the proposed amendments to Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, which have secured the Cabinet approval.

Labour Minister, Bandaru Dattatreya was supposed to table the amendment in Rajya Sabha on August 9. A green light here means an almost certain victory of the changes as the next house to decide on the fate of the amendments has the governing party in majority. Citing the women friendly nature of amendments, the minister is reported to be optimistic of an easy clearance.

The proposed amendments aim at pegging maternity leave for working women at 26 weeks, placing India amongst a few nations with the longest maternity leave. One noteworthy clause mentioned is that the 26-week maternity leave will not be applicable to women with two more children. In addition, commissioning mothers, who opt for surrogacy or adoption of infants aging less than three months, are also supposed to benefit from this move. However, the proposed leave period for commissioning mothers is restricted to 12 weeks. The changes are also expected to bring in the option of “work from home” for nursing mothers, based on the job profile of the employee. The duration will be a mutual discretion between the employee and the employer.   

Read Also:
Implementation Of GST To Give Job Market A Fillip: Experts
Online Hiring In IT Sector Revs Up: Report