Many mins back WCD proposal to increase maternity leave

The Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry’s proposal to increase maternity leave for women working in private sector to eight months has recieved a boost with various Union ministries extending their support to it, even though a final call on the matter will be taken by a committee of senior bureacrats.

Earlier, the Labour Department had approved an extension of six-and-a-half month of maternity leave against the WCD Ministry’s proposal of eight months. The Ministry has now decided to forward the proposal to the Committee of Secretaries headed by Cabinet Secretary.

“Since we have proposed for a longer duration (8 months), we will forward the matter to Committee of Secretaries headed by the Cabinet Secretary. Once they clear it, it will go the Cabinet,” a senior WCD official said.

“We had also sent the proposal to different ministries and most of them have supported it, including Defence, Home and Finance,” the official said.

“The Labour Department has already approved (extension) for 6.5 months. Let it be taken to a higher level,” he said.

The Ministry headed by Maneka Gandhi has been demanding eight months of maternity leave in pursuance of the WHO’s recommendations for six months exclusive breastfeeding to infants for healthy growth and development.

“We need to ensure minimum six months breastfeeding from the date of child birth, so you need at least that much time and it’s a medically proven fact that a woman requires at least one month leave before child birth,” he said.

Of the total eight months of leave, the ministry has proposed one month before child birth and seven months after that. If the proposal gets through, it would require an amendment to the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, which entitles women to 12 weeks of maternity benefit whereby employers are liable to pay full wages for the leave period.