Yes the decision to modify the Maternity Benefits Act is welcome and also long overdue. It will help the working women a lot  specially those in the IT fields. But with the current situation in the country, I feel more than equality, govt should take concrete steps to ensure security to the women in the country.

A good step indeed. The Maternity benefit Bill increases  maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 Weeks was passed by lok Sabnha earlier and now passed by  the Rajya Sabha also. This protects the employment of  Working women including employees of IT firms, during the time of maternity and entitles them a full paid absence work. It covers the Private Sector also.

Yes the bill was passed in RS yesterday and now it is a reality. But , I am not sure if it includes private sectors since that is a very vast sector with a huge number of women working in it.. I guess slowly it will get implemented in all sectors.

A Telugu news channel said that the Bill will cover the employees Of Private sector. It was not clear if the coverage of Private sector employees will be immediate or over a period. The extended period of Maternity leave will be very useful in giving  more care to the infant.

That is very a good thing that has happened. Minimum six months period for maternity leave is very necessary for the mother as well as child. When I delivered my son, all I could get was 90 days leave and so had to extend another 3 month unpaid leave. Downside was along with no salary, even my performance graph suffered even though it was excellent before I went on leave. When I went back, it was literally that I had to start over from scratch which was very unfair. And I have seen with my own eyes how much struggle the mothers who could afford to take unpaid leave had to go through once they joined after the period of 90 days. So by passing this bill, it is the first step towards recognition of women's contribution.

True, six months is the least they can give since it does not come anywhere within the standards of many European countries where you can take upto 2 years paid maternity leave..

usha manohar wrote:

True, six months is the least they can give since it does not come anywhere within the standards of many European countries where you can take upto 2 years paid maternity leave..

Also, the paternity leave which again is I think more than 4 weeks, additionally, to encourage fathers to share the responsibility of raising the child. Which in India, is only 12 days.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

usha manohar wrote:

True, six months is the least they can give since it does not come anywhere within the standards of many European countries where you can take upto 2 years paid maternity leave..

Also, the paternity leave which again is I think more than 4 weeks, additionally, to encourage fathers to share the responsibility of raising the child. Which in India, is only 12 days.

Yes they get one month but they can extend it if the wife is unwell and unable to care for the infant.

The increase in maternity leave is welcome. In many European countries women are enciuraged to give birth to children in view of their falling birth rates. So purpose of leave at both places is not same.

Yes that makes sense...In the Indian context I guess they need to discourage couple from having more kids after the first or the second child..