As I sit to scroll through my Instagram feed, one after other, the news pops up. Ranbir Kapoor has reportedly not signed new movies ‘coz he wants to “take up paternity leave” to spend time with Alia Bhatt and their baby. The reactions were all “aww” and “so cute”. But how much of this is a reality in today’s India?
When Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian, spoke about taking paternity leave, a couple of years ago, to welcome the birth of his daughter and to spend quality time with his wife, Serena Williams, it made heads turn. In India. Millennial hands-on dads looked at the decision in awe but were still unsure about taking the plunge.
Cut to 2022. Is India Inc ready to normalise paternity leaves? And more importantly are Indian dads ready for the task? Let’s find out.
Paternity Leave- Then vs Now
A few decades ago, this wouldn’t have even been a discussion. Your and my dads have never taken long breaks to help our moms raise us, am sure. And in some houses, even when the dad is at home, the mom IS always the primary caregiver- a scenario that continues today in the majority of Indian homes. But over the years, things have changed. From a generation of dads that proudly used to call taking care of their kids “babysitting”, we have definitely dawned upon an era where dads prefer to take a career break or switch to WFH mode, to spend more time with the family and to do their share in raising children.
Are The Laws Ready To Give Dads A Break?
A study by BBC News, revealed that most Indian companies are frugal with their leave policies when it comes to dads vs moms.
India’s federal and most state governments allow married male employees to take a fortnight’s leave at the time of, or within six months after, the birth of a child. Compared to 26 weeks of paid leaves, one of the longest in the world, for Indian women working in state-run and private companies.
But in recent times, according to this report, there is a shift in perspective, especially among private companies. It all started earlier this year when Twitter Inc’s Chief Executive Officer, Indian-born Parag Agarwal announced that he was taking a few weeks off to be with his wife and child. And of course, when former Indian cricket team captain Virat Kohli took a break from playing and captaining the team, to be with his wife Anushka Sharma for the birth of their daughter, people welcomed the move and wished dads across the country would pick up a cue from him.
Names such as Flipkart, Razorpay, Meesho, and Twilio have gone a step further announcing that they would be offering paternity leave, ranging from 8 to 30 weeks, and flexible WFH options, etc for new fathers.
IKEA India has announced 6 months of paid paternity leave for its employees. Novartis announced a 26-week paternity leave, the same as Zomato India.
The reason for this wide discrepancy and dependency on company policies, stems from the fact there is no legal Paternity Leave Law that is written or framed in the Indian legislation. Unlike the Maternity Benefit Bill, 2016 that won hearts across the country for normalising leaves for moms and making it easier for women to get back to the workforce after having kids, and not abruptly pausing or ending their careers.
Are Indian Dads Ready To Avail The Break (If Offered?)
When speaking about parenting, and chores, and responsibilities at home, the pandemic is often touted as an equalizer that brought to the fore, the “helping” tendencies of the average Indian father. Social media stories and memes of dads taking work calls while cleaning dishes or posing hilariously with the brooms and mops flooded our timeline during the lockdown and the pandemic. But the reality was far from the picture painted.
A Fortune report revealed a shocking stat- where women did three times as much child care as men during the pandemic. Kidsstoppress dug deep into this topic on why we need to address parental burnout and create awareness around the same in this article- click here to read it.
Here are some stats from the article. The New York Times came up with a series, The Primal Scream, that examines the effect of the pandemic on working mothers in America. In a survey, they conducted it was observed that against 51% of fathers, 69% of moms felt they experienced adverse health effects due to worry and stress during the pandemic. And another shocking statistic revealed that-
The number of working moms who felt that their performance was being judged negatively because of their caregiving responsibilities at home, was twice as compared to that of working dads.
On the other hands, there is a small percentage of dads who are ready to take a career break or WFH to spend more time with the kids- but frankly, is that decision easy to make? What are the factors they would have to weigh in before taking the plunge?
Tarun Sakhrani, an Indian-born, London-based Investment banker and a contributor at KSP, wrote about why he chose to take a break from work and how he went about it. Here is a snippet from his article.
You get all sorts of questions and responses when you tell someone you are doing something like this. It creates doubts in your own mind and makes you question your decision. But again, if you know what you want, then there should be nothing that stops you. And so, four months down the line, as I look back on the decision, I feel nothing but happiness, joy and satisfaction. I almost want to pat myself on my back for this decision. I had read about people taking career breaks – going off into the mountains to meditate, cooking, volunteering, travelling, all sorts of things to just get away – for me this was my break from it all.
This was my chance to disconnect from the constant hustle of today’s corporate culture. It was also a chance for me to connect with a different side of me, and discover the true parent in me. I have absolutely enjoyed every bit of it – the school drops, the birthday parties, the play dates, visits to museums, the morning wake-ups and cuddles, listening to endless tales about imaginary friends, toys, stories from school … nappy changes for the little one… yes, even the tantrums of a 3-year old sometimes.
As a mom, what is your take on this? Are Indian dads ready to help out moms in today’s world? As a dad, what is your take on this? We would love to hear from you- talk to us in the comments below.
Mansi Zaveri
KSP Team
Parul Gupta
