Maternity bill may lead to lesser women in India's workforce, says report

Ten sectors of the Indian workforce may lose 1-1.8 million women in FY19 as a fallout of the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill passed last year, according to a Times of India report quoting a TeamLease study. 

The bill gave the working woman a lot of protections and was seen to be helping 1.8 million women, as reported by Business Standard earlier. It placed India in the third position in terms of the number of weeks for maternity leave after Canada and Norway where it is 50 weeks and 44 weeks, respectively. 

The ToI report says that small businesses have been a bit reluctant to hire women due to the costs that the bill enforces on a company in case a female worker gets pregnant.

Here are some of the finer points of the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill:

* The Bill aims to protect the employment of women during the time of pregnancy and entitles them to full paid absence from work to take care of their child

* Women working in the organised sector are now entitled to paid maternity leave of 26 weeks, up from 12 weeks

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

* The new law will apply to all establishments employing 10 or more people and the entitlement will be for only up to first two children. For a third child, the entitlement will be for only 12 weeks.

* 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 the office or in any place within a 500-metre radius.

* The mother will be allowed four visits to the creche in a day. This will include her interval for rest.

* It also allows employers to permit a woman to work from home if it is possible to do so

* 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 (in order words - a biological mother).” The period of maternity leave will be calculated from the date the child is handed over to the commissioning or adoptive mother.

Female participation in India among the lowest in G-20

IndiaSpend reported a year ago rising income levels and stability in families are disincentivising women from joining the labour force. Only 27% Indian women are in the labour force–the lowest among BRICS countries; among G-20 countries, it is better only than Saudi Arabia, it said.