"Tamil Nadu Extends Maternity Leave, Paternity Leave Gap Remains Unaddressed"
Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017
Central law extending paid maternity leave to 26 weeks for first two children, 12 weeks for third child onward.
Paternity leave
Paid leave granted to a father around childbirth; India has no national statutory paternity leave for private-sector workers.
India's legal framework for maternity protection has evolved over several decades. The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 first established the right to paid leave around childbirth for women in organised-sector establishments. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 significantly strengthened these provisions. It extended paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for women expecting their first or second child. For a third child onward, the entitlement remains 12 weeks. The 2017 amendment also made it mandatory for establishments with 50 or more employees to provide crèche facilities, and allowed women to work from home under certain conditions. Crucially, the Act allows mothers four crèche visits per day, not six, as is sometimes misremembered, and the crèche must be within a prescribed distance of the workplace.
Despite these gains, the law applies only to the organised sector, leaving the vast majority of India's working women, employed in agriculture, domestic work, and the informal economy, without statutory protection. There is no national paternity leave policy of comparable scope. Central government male employees receive 15 days of paternity leave, a figure that has not been revised in decades and applies only to the first two children. Private-sector paternity leave remains entirely at employer discretion. The Constitution of India under Article 42 directs the state to make provision for just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief, but this directive principle has not been extended to create a gender-neutral parental leave framework.
The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 is directly relevant here: Tamil Nadu's new scheme for government employees, extending leave to 365 days for a third child, effectively overrides the Act's own 12-week cap for that category of workers, illustrating how state governments can go beyond the central floor for their own employees even when the national law sets a lower threshold.
The design of parental leave policy reflects deeper assumptions about who is responsible for childcare. Most countries began with maternity leave, leave reserved for the biological mother, justified on grounds of physical recovery from childbirth and infant feeding. Over time, many countries recognised that this design, while protective, also reinforced the expectation that childcare is primarily a woman's responsibility.
Sweden's experience is the most cited international reference. In 1974, Sweden became the first country to replace maternity leave with a gender-neutral parental leave benefit that either parent could use. However, fathers' participation remained low for decades because the leave was fully transferable, fathers simply transferred their share to mothers. Sweden responded by introducing non-transferable, use-it-or-lose-it leave quotas reserved for each parent. This design change significantly increased fathers' participation in early childcare and is now widely studied as a model for shared parenting policy. …
Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017?
1.Pregnant women are entitled to three months pre-delivery and three months post-delivery paid leave.
2.For enterprises with crèche facilities, mothers must be allowed a minimum of six crèche visits daily.
3.Women with two children get reduced entitlements.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017?
1.Pregnant women are entitled to three months pre-delivery and three months post-delivery paid leave.
2.For enterprises with crèche facilities, mothers must be allowed a minimum of six crèche visits daily.
3.Women with two children get reduced entitlements.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
With reference to the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, consider the following statements:
1.Women expecting their first or second child are entitled to 26 weeks of paid maternity leave.
2.Women who already have two or more children are entitled to 12 weeks of paid maternity leave.
3.Establishments with 30 or more employees are required to provide crèche facilities.
4.Mothers are entitled to four crèche visits per day where crèche facilities exist.
How many of the statements given above are correct?
Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding maternity and paternity leave provisions in India?
1.The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 applies to all women workers including those in the unorganised sector.
2.Central government male employees are entitled to 15 days of paternity leave for their first two children.
3.Article 42 of the Constitution directs the state to make provision for maternity relief.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
Consider the following pairs:
Country — Parental Leave Policy Innovation
1.Sweden — First country to introduce gender-neutral parental leave benefit (1974)
2.India — Mandatory non-transferable paternity leave for private-sector workers
3.Sweden — Non-transferable father quotas to increase paternal participation
4.India — 26 weeks maternity leave for first two children under the 2017 amendment
How many of the pairs given above are correctly matched?
With reference to India's demographic transition, which of the following statements is/are correct?
1.NFHS-5 (2019–21) recorded India's national Total Fertility Rate falling below the replacement level of 2.1 for the first time.
2.Tamil Nadu and Kerala achieved sub-replacement Total Fertility Rate decades before the national average crossed that threshold.
3.The National Population Policy 2000 retained the target-based approach to family planning introduced during the Emergency period.
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
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