Paternity Benefit - A Step Forward to Gender Parity
- Rajvi Shah, GNLU, Gandhinagar
- September 25, 2020
Content :
Indian Government has enacted Maternity Benefits Act, 1961 providing numerous benefits to the women during pregnancy and after the birth of a child. Whereas, no such benefit has been provided to men inspite of having equal parenting roles. Though the Central Government and few multinationals do provide paternity leaves, they are seldom used by men against the societal norms and bias. MP Rajeev Satav had introduced the Paternity Benefit Bill in 2017 which has not been passed. It consisted of paid paternity leaves to father for a period of fifteen days extendable upto 3 months. We live in a society where already the burden of nurturing the children lies on the women and the void of paternal leave in the law reinforces the same. The Government can enforce such a law to bridge the gap of parental bias in the society and simultaneously contribute to healthy and holistic development of a child. Though there were some loopholes in the bill proposed, alterations can be made incorporating the lacking aspects and tallying it with the contemporary needs. Many nations around the globe have various paternal leave policies varying from paid fifteen days leave to 53 weeks of leave to be divided amongst the parents. A proper legislation should be formulated to provide for paternity leaves sparking the scope of equal opportunities at the workplace.
