Maternity Leave Law in India 2015

Verrick, Sher (2017): «The paradox of low female labour force participation», Ideas for India, 8 March www.ideasforindia.in/topics/social-identity/women-and-work-in-asia-insights-for-indias-low-female-labour-force-participation.html. The maternity allowance for women provided for in the amendment exclusively links childcare to women, thus reinforcing a gender-specific division of labour. Unpaid care work includes housekeeping, personal care in one`s own household, and volunteer services to others. It creates, maintains, renews and rebuilds the workforce. It is fundamental for economic and social functioning and subsidizes the economy and the state. Unpaid care work is ideologically mystified as «love labor» or «innate women`s labor» that requires no special skills. While motherhood and breastfeeding are completely «woman-centered» biological acts, care work, including child care, is a social act to which all people can be socialized. Unpaid care work, which is invisible in the privacy of the home, is not defined as «work» and is not counted in GDP. The low value it highlights reflects the low value of women`s paid public work and the gender-discriminatory sectoral and occupational segmentation – vertical and horizontal. It is essential that societies understand the socio-economic value of unpaid care work, include it in the System of National Accounts[7] and measure its contribution to GDP, as in the case of Mexico and the Philippines. In addition, the pressure of unpaid care work can be reduced through public investments in physical and social infrastructure such as clean energy, water, sanitation, health services, such as decentralized renewable energy solutions for women`s access to energy and non-traditional jobs, mobile nurseries provided by the voluntary sector in India for women workers in the informal sector.

There is a need to go beyond recognising and reducing unpaid care work for women in a way that rids stereotypes and ensure their redistribution between men, women and all genders, as this is essential for gender equality and women`s rights. 1 Source: Report of the Committee on Legal Affairs, 2015 ( lawcommissionofindia.nic.in/reports/Report259.pdf) Organizations should consider paid leave for various family responsibilities, advance planning for shift workers, flexible work arrangements, sick leave, quality subsidized childcare, adequate pensions, shorter working hours, where appropriate, decent wages and work cultures that also combine care work of all genders with professional work. Respecting Achievements (Heilman 2017). By investing in gender diversity and recognising that working parents make up a growing proportion of India`s workforce, companies are building an ecosystem for sustainable careers for women and men. Procter & Gamble and Snapdeal have launched campaigns like #sharetheload and #fatherscanbemothers. Sapient India has flexible working hours and work-from-home policies for both men and women (Shrivastava 2018). Other employer practices include verified performance reviews, workshops for new parents (Shrivastava 2018), and on-site crèches for male and female employees (D`Cunha forthcoming). The ministry said women who were already receiving 12 weeks of maternity benefit before April 1, 2017, cannot extend their leave to 26 weeks. However, women on maternity leave from 1 April 2017 may extend their leave to 26 weeks, subject to Article 5 (3) of the amending Act. Contrary to the recommendations of the Sixth Wages Commission in 2008 and the Law Commission of India in 2015, the amendment excludes women from the informal sector, who make up 93% of India`s workforce. These women face little childcare support by leaving their children alone at home, enlisting help from an older sibling, and taking their children to work.

[5] This affects the quality of care, health and safety of young children. This has a negative impact on the educational and employment opportunities of the caregiver, often a girl who drops out of school to care for care, and reinforces the vicious cycle of poverty and gender inequality. Children in the mother`s workplace without childcare can reduce the time and effort that women can invest in paid work, thereby reducing productivity (Swaminathan, 1985). It exposes children to a variety of hazards such as toxic environments, extreme weather, animal and insect bites, traffic or other accidents in fields, construction sites and markets. In the case of women in sex, this exposes children to sex too early in paralyzing environments. [6] These children tend to join the child labour army as they grow up and gradually take on tasks in these workplaces (Swaminathan 1985). Certain provisions of the amending act entered into force on 1 April 2017. These provisions include the extension of maternity leave to 26 weeks, homework for nursing mothers and the granting of 12 weeks of maternity benefit to contracting and adoptive mothers. However, a woman with two or more surviving children may take maternity leave of 12 weeks, six weeks before the expected date of delivery. It is important to note that the provision on the compulsory establishment of crèches in a company with 50 or more employees will enter into force on 1 July 2017. Change can inadvertently lead to the replacement of women with a male workforce, reducing women`s wages and participation in the labour market. Employers have been given full responsibility for the provision of maternity benefits.

This is doable for large companies, but start-ups and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which employ about 40% of India`s workforce, struggle to cope with operating costs. Maternity benefits would result in additional cost pressures, litigation risk, penalties for non-compliance, and a threat to sustainability. This could result in hiring men instead or declining productivity in female-focused occupations. When wage cuts contribute negligibly or negatively to household income, women may leave the labour market, further reducing their labour force participation rates and increasing gender inequalities in employment (Khattri 2017). This could be avoided through tax breaks and public-private partnerships to support childcare in these sectors and for poor communities, without shifting the financial burden onto beneficiaries. Their problems are related to coverage, inadequate regulations and guidelines that could hinder participation and increase discrimination in the workplace, especially against poor women.