Will Modi sarkar's maternity leave reforms make women pay for motherhood?
India is a strange country. There are too many people supporting different viewpoints which make it tough to introduce and implement reforms. Union minister for women and child development Maneka Gandhi recently announced that the ministry is considering increasing the maternity leave period from three to eight months.
"We have mooted a proposal of extending the maternity leave for working women from present three months to eight months to the cabinet secretariat for a discussion in the Committee of Secretaries. The matter was taken up by our minister with the prime minister and he is also very interested, so we are sending a copy to him," said Nutan Guha Biswas, additional secretary, WCD ministry.
The proposed eight-month maternity leave includes one month's leave before the expected delivery date and seven months after the child is born.
In the recent past, several firms have introduced maternity leave reforms for supporting women.
Flipkart now offers six months' paid leave for new mothers, twice the statutory requirement of 12 weeks. After resuming work, they can work flexible hours for four months. In addition, the company offers the mothers Rs 600 per day in transport reimbursement for two months before they go on maternity leave, and a dedicated parking spot two months before and after the child is born.
At Vodafone, women employees get 16 weeks of paid maternity leave and get full pay for working 30 hours a week for six months after resuming work. In June, Citibank announced that it will give childcare allowance of upto Rs 1.32 lakh to new mothers, over and above their salaries.
Owing to India's patriarchal society and culture, it is extremely difficult for women to venture out of their homes and do jobs. One glance inside a Delhi metro coach at 9am would be enough to get a fair idea about existing gender disparities. On any given day, one would find very few women in a single coach as compared to the hordes of men, barring the "women's only" coach.
The percentage of working women has increased manifold in the past two decades, largely due to the efforts made by various NGOs and government campaigns and the advent of social media. But a lot more needs to be done.
According to the World Bank, only 27 per cent of the female population, aged over 15, is working in India - which is the lowest among BRICS countries. China leads the way at 64 per cent.
Unfortunately, gender biases are widely prevalent at the workplace and women often face prejudice in office. Though the proposal by Maneka Gandhi is progressive and aimed at providing more space and time to mothers to get back to their jobs, such a move might worsen the situation. Here are three reasons why:
1. Existing offensive practices: Often, while being interviewed for jobs, women are asked extremely personal questions that are never posed to men, such as, do you plan to marry soon? When do you plan to have a baby? How do you plan to manage your family life as you will be busy all day? While these questions may seem normal to any woman job seeker in India, asking such questions is illegal in the US. The laws have defined a list of questions that can't be put to interviewees. Therefore, though progressive norms are being adopted across firms in India, many women face harassment and discrimination at workplace, with no laws to curb them. Therefore, increasing the maternity leave period might subject women to further discrimination. Ritika Kumar (name changed), an engineer from Pune, had been interviewed for the role of a school manager. She was asked, "Are you planning to start a family this year?", to which she replied "Not anytime soon". Kumar got selected and joined the job that time. "I felt really humiliated and bad. Now I think I shouldn't have even joined them," says Kumar.
2. High attrition rate post pregnancy: Indian women's attrition rate in jobs post pregnancy is quite high. Therefore, the government's move could swell the attrition rate as women will face more hostilities (such as allocating less important projects) from employers in getting back to their jobs and even if they do get back, they might be treated badly (which happens quite often) - this will compel them to leave their jobs. "Many companies assume that working mothers are not a long-term asset - that they are not likely to stick around even after returning maternity leave," said Persis Sidhwa, a lawyer at Mumbai-based Majlis, a non-profit organisation that works for the legal rights of women. She further added that private and public sectors often do not provide any incentives to women so they can continue working at an organisation after having a baby - most companies do not provide crèches or flexible working hours, forcing women to choose between work and home. Hence, if women choose to avail of the full eight-month maternity leave, chances are that they would face more hostilities.
3. Low preference for female candidates: After hearing about the government's proposal and deciding to write about it, I spoke to a senior level HR manager who handles recruitments for a real estate firm. He said, "This decision is ridiculous. We will also take less women employees if this is implemented. Giving eight-month paid maternity leaves will be tough for us." Therefore, many employers will reduce their preference for women candidates (especially young women) as they would have to shell out more money for paid leave. This will be a setback for the various campaigns and initiatives, which are aimed at increasing the percentage of women employees in offices.
Apart from increasing the maternity leave period, the government should also look to introduce laws and reforms that will help curb harassment and discrimination of women, especially working mothers. As I mentioned, there are too many people with different viewpoints. While the government's proposed policy is progressive, it might very well go against women, thereby becoming counter-productive.