A child’s bond with its mother starts the very moment that it takes life in her, he can hear his mother’s voice, her heartbeat, her lullaby everything. But, when the baby comes to the world that’s when he sees his father and their bond begins. Fathers must have spoken to their babies while they were in the womb, so the baby must recognise their voice. The initial days of babies life is important to create bond for the mother, so is for the father.
Traditionally, this role of a father was always blind sided. But after the amendment of maternity act in 2017, paternity leave too came into picture. So let’s see the paternity leave rules in India.
What exactly is the provisions for paternity leave in India?
The proposition of the Paternity Benefit Bill in 2017
After the Maternity Benefit Amendment Act happened, there was a new bill proposed, known as The Paternity Benefit Bill. This new bill states that all workers, both in unorganised and private sectors, should get paternity leave of fifteen days, which is also extendable up to three months. One of the most important features is that it emphasised the equal parental benefits for mothers and fathers.
What are the rules of paternity leave in India?
Can an employee of private sector avail these leaves?
Paternity leave is sanctioned for the government employees, but there is no law that mandates private sectors when it comes to paternity leave. Therefore, it is open to interpretation by the individual companies themselves. Some of the biggest companies took their own steps towards paternity leave through HR policies. Microsoft offers 12 weeks, Infosys only 5 days, Facebook is in the lead with 17 weeks, Starbucks allows 12 weeks, TCS gives 15 days, Oracle only 5 days, while Deloitte gives their employees 16 weeks of paternity leave.
Paternity leave in India for government sector employees.
The Central Government in 1999, under Central Civil Services (Leave) Rule 551 (A), introduced the following provisions for paternity leave:
For a male Central Government employee with less than two surviving children can avail leave for a period of 15 days to take care of his wife and child. This possibility is to avail the leave 15 days before, or within 6 months from the birth of the child. If such leave is not availed, it will be treated as invalid. A leave salary equal to the pay before the leave will be paid.
The objective of paternity bill 2017
The main aim is to provide benefits to natural parents, adoptive parents, and people acting as in loco parentis. If Parliament votes for it, this will benefit the men in the labour force, including the ones in the unorganised sector.
Fathers play an important role in nurturing the new born, it also helps the mother to recover faster if she gets sometime for herself. It’s important for the men to understand their role in this process. A helping hand and a supportive gesture is very much of a necessity for a new mother, she has gone through a lot of changes and all she desires is her for the partner to be there. So folks of you are lucky enough to avail a paternity leave make full use of it.
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