LS clears Bill to raise maternity leave to 26 weeks

NEW DELHI: The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which will raise the maternity leave for working women in public and private sector from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for the first two children.

The new law will apply to all establishments employing 10 or more people.

The maternity leave for children beyond the first two will continue to be 12 weeks.

The bill will now be sent to the President for his assent before it becomes an Act. It has already been passed by the Rajya Sabha during last winter session.

Recognising that women who adopt or use a surrogate to bear a child also need time to bond with the child in the initial months, the bill also extends a 12-week maternity leave to adapting and commissioning mothers.

The commissioning mother has been defined as “one whose egg is used to create an embryo planted in surrogate’s womb.”

However, the bill has left out surrogate mothers from the benefit, an issue over which the government had faced criticism from the opposition benches in the Rajya Sabha during the winter session.

Piloting amendments to the old law, labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya said while framing the rules, he would try to ensure that maximum benefits reach pregnant women.

“This is my humble gift to women, a day after the world celebrated the International Women’s Day,” he said after about 4-hour debate during which some members demanded paternity benefits. They argued that these days most children are born in nuclear families where both the father and the mother have to take care of the child.

The bill also makes it mandatory for employers in establishments with 30 women or 50 employees, whichever is less, to provide crèche facilities either in office or in any place within a 500-metre radius.