Maternity Benefit Bill, 2016
The Maternity Benefits Act, 1961 requires the employer to provide its women workers with maternity leave of upto 12 weeks, with full wages. The Bill raises this period of maternity leave to 26 weeks. Several expert bodies including the Law Commission of India and the Indian Labour Conference have highlighted the need to provide maternity leave up to a period of 24 weeks. The World Health Organisation recommends that children must be exclusively breastfed by the mother for the first 24 weeks to improve their survival rates and for the healthy development of both mother and child. It has also been argued that the absence of adequate maternity leave and income security leads to women dropping out of the labour force. Women employees in the central government are currently entitled to maternity leave of 24 weeks and additional child care leave up to a period of two years.
On the other hand, it could be argued that increasing maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks could have an adverse impact on the job opportunities available for women. Since the Bill requires the employer to pay full wages during maternity leave, it could increase costs for employers and result in a preference for hiring male workers. Also, the increase in costs could impact the competitiveness of industries that employ a higher proportion of women workers. Some countries have addressed this issue by creating different mechanisms for financing maternity leave.