Maternity And Parental Leave Laws In India: A Legal Analysis On Need For Gender Neutrality
Ridhi Saxena, Assistant Professor, School of Law and Public Policy, Avantika University
ABSTRACT
India's maternal and paternal leave laws are biased toward women and ignore the roles of men and other caregivers. While India is a leader in providing protections to employed mothers through the Maternal Leave Act of 1961 (Maternity Benefit Act), it fails to recognize that the way we care for our children is evolving. Amendments made to the law in 2017 to provide benefits for commissioned and adopted mothers failed to provide statutory paid leave for new fathers or other male caregivers who may also become parents. In addition to leaving male caregivers without support under the law, the fact that many workers within India's informal labor market do not receive adequate time off from work to parent their children exacerbate this issue. This article reviews the existing laws governing parental leave and court decisions that have shaped those laws as they relate to promoting a gender-neutral approach to family-based caregiving. An analysis comparing international models used for gender-neutral parental leave policies demonstrate how such policies can help achieve greater gender equity and encourage co-parenting among both men and women. Finally, this article highlights the shortcomings in today’s system and provides several recommendations to amend India’s parental leave legislation so that it supports modern families and aligns with international standards.
Keywords: Gender-neutral parental leave, Maternity Benefit Act 1961, statutory paternity leave, shared parenting, work-life balance, informal sector, adoptive parents' rights.
