The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Act, 2016- Pros And Cons

Introduction

In February 2017, the Lok Sabha passed the Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Bill, 2016. The Bill had been passed by the Rajya Sabha in August 2016

This bill is an amendment to the Maternity Benefits Act, 1961. This Act protects the employment of women during the time of her maternity and entitles her to a ‘maternity benefit’ – i.e. leave from work with full wages paid.

The act is applicable to all establishments employing 10 or more persons.

Amendments

The key amendments to the Maternity Benefits Act, 1961 are as follows:

1. Increase Maternity Benefit (leave with full wages) from the present 12 weeks to 26 weeks for two children. However, a woman with 2 or more than 2 children will be entitled to a leave of only  12 weeks.
2. 12 weeks Maternity Benefit to a ‘Commissioning mother’ and woman who adopts a child below 3 months of age.  A commissioning mother is defined as a biological mother who uses her egg to have a surrogate child.
3.  Facilitate ‘Work from home’ once the leave period of 26 weeks ends.
4. Mandatory provision of Creche in respect of establishment/ organisations having 50 or more employees. The woman will be allowed four visits to the creche in a day.

Pros of the Bil

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that it is important to exclusively breastfeed a child for 6 months after birth to reduce infant mortality. The bill will have a positive impact on child’s health and well-being and decrease infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate.
• It will have a positive impact on women’s participation in the labour force and will improve the work- life balance of the women workers. The amendments will help 1.8 million (approx.) women workforce in the organised sector.
• It brings India at par with global standards in terms of maternity benefits. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) prescribes a minimum standard of 14 weeks of maternity leave. At 26 weeks, India will rank third, after Canada (50 weeks) and Norway (44 weeks) in terms of the number of weeks of maternity leave.

Cons of the Bill

• It could lead to an adverse impact on employment opportunities for women. Companies will be disincentivised to hire more women workers due to the additional cost of maternity benefit and creche involved.
• The bill will impact only the women employed in the organised sector. Whereas, around 90 % of working women are working in the unorganised sector.
• It reinforces stereotypes about women’s role in child-care by not even mentioning  paternity leave.
• The coverage is limited to two children. It could affect the health and well-being of the third child.
• It is applicable only to adoptive ‘mothers’ and not to fathers and transgenders who might want to adopt a child.

Suggestions

To eliminate the disincentive in hiring women, the cost of maternity leave should be borne by the Government. It could also be shared between employers, employees and the Government in a certain proportion. This will reduce the burden on the employees.

The Act should provide for paternity leave as well. This would discourage employees from discriminating against women in hiring. Also, women would get equal rights and not be underpaid just because they might avail maternity leave and be absent for a while.

Conclusion

In spite of the deficiencies, the bill is definitely a step in the right direction. The corporate sector might not use discriminatory hiring practices as there is always a pressure on corporates to maintain the diversity in the organisation.

Also, in the long run, benefits will surpass the costs, as studies suggests that women usually stay longer in the organisation than men and maternity leave will only make them more loyal. It will decrease labour turnover.