Govt employees to get six-month maternity, child care leave for surrogacy

In cases of surrogacy involving government servants, both the surrogate and the commissioning mother (with less than two surviving children) may receive 180 days of maternity leave

The Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, have been updated to allow ‘commissioning mothers’ who opt for surrogacy 180 days of maternity leave. This revision marks a significant change to the 50-year-old regulation, now extending childcare leave to commissioning mothers with less than two surviving children. Additionally, ‘commissioning fathers’ are eligible for a 15-day paternity leave under the amended rules.

The amended rules state, “In case of surrogacy, the surrogate, as well as the commissioning mother with less than two surviving children, may be granted maternity leave of 180 days, in case either or both of them are government servants.”

 

Furthermore, the rules state that “the commissioning father who is a male government servant with less than two surviving children may be granted paternity leave of 15 days within six months from the child's delivery date.”

Additionally, the Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules, 2024, state that commissioning mothers with fewer than two surviving children may avail child care leave.

Existing rules allow  “a female government servant and single male government servant” child care leave for a maximum period of 730 days during entire service “for taking care of the two eldest surviving children, whether for rearing or for looking after any of their needs, such as education, sickness and the like.”

The rules also define the ‘surrogate mother’ as the woman who bears the child on behalf of the commissioning mother, while the ‘commissioning father’ refers to the intended father of the child born through surrogacy.

Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules of 2022

Recently, the Centre revised the Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules of 2022, permitting married couples to use donor eggs or sperm when one partner faces a medical condition.

According to the amended Surrogacy (Regulation) Rules of 2022, it is mandated that the District Medical Board must confirm the presence of a medical condition in either the husband or wife, which requires the use of a donor gamete.

[With PTI inputs]