If you are a married woman, with a successful career and thinking about starting a family, these stats may not surprise you. A recent study by Assocham says more than 50% of married urban women within the age of 24-30 have shelved plans to have kids to pursue higher studies or specific career goals.
Why?Â
While society may not agree with these stats, they are there for all to see. The need of the hour is to therefore look for the reason why. Most urban women will agree that corporate culture in India doesn’t favour a very robust maternity leave policy. While women having children and growing their family is a part of our society, changes in the demographics of urban women and the fact that more and more women are educated and staking their rightful claim in arenas traditionally populated by men, is enough reason to rethink our paltry maternity leave policy.
Indian companies offer 12 weeks paid maternity leave to new moms. While a very short period for a new mom to leave her newborn to the care of others and get back to work, some may wonder what about the child who is still nursing. All new moms know that infants need to nurse very frequently. With distances in India being what they are and the idea of pumping and storing breastmilk for the infant being frowned upon or still way behind the western countries, Indian moms have to face a tough situation ahead of them.
Fragile mental states and exhaustion from taking care of a newborn also leads to a failure to balance both professional and personal lives, which then forces a new mom to choose home over career and quit her job.
Image Source:Â theatlantic.com
Maternity Leave Around the World
- India’s maternity leave policy is among those group of countries that rank at the bottom. With less than 14 weeks we are close to the US which allows moms just 12 weeks unpaid leave. New fathers in India employed with the Central government will get upto 15 days paid leave and private companies are following suit!
- Tunisia gives new moms a paltry 30 days to recover from childbirth and report back to work!
- European countries, known for their excellent maternal care, rank among the highest for their generous parental leave laws. Sweden and Norway allow more than a year paid leave for mother and father combined, so both can be equally responsible and bond with their baby.
- UK has recently announced shared parental leaves through which mom and dad can split the 50 weeks off between them.
Image Source:Â womenandtech.com
Recently, there is renewed hope for new moms in India. Various companies that make up India Inc have awoken to the fact that they are losing their women workforce and they need to do something about it fast! Women centric initiatives have been launched by Citibank and Accenture to retain women employees, particularly those coming back from a maternity break. From extended paid leave for new mothers to child care allowances, these companies are doing whatever it takes to improve the gender diversity and to retain more and more women at workplace. Even the judiciary in India is waking up to hard facts. Recently, in a landmark ruling, the Delhi High Court said that mothers who have children through surrogacy are also entitled to maternity leave by their company during pre and post natal period.
Some of the really noteworthy companies that are paving the way for women are:
SAP Labs India: With 5 months of paid maternity leave and an option to extend it by another 4 months SAP knows what its women employees want!
Flipkart: Offers new moms six months of paid maternity leave along with four extra months of flexible working hours. They even pay half of your daycare expenses!
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL): Recently decided to exempt those women on maternity leaves/childcare leave from being appraised on a bell curve.
Maybe there is hope after all! We can’t wait to see what the next Assocham survey on the subject says!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV7x52doJ4o
For more information follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram and do subscribe to our Youtube Channel.
KSP Team
Vaishnavi Venkatraman
Mansi Zaveri
Parul Gupta
