Maternity Bill

About 800 women die every day of preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth in the world. Twenty per cent of these women are from India. To reduce the MMR and give mothers enough time to recover and breast feed the child, the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 was passed by Lok Sabha while Rajya Sabha had passed it in August last year. India is now one of the top countries in the world to give 26 week maternity leave.

Labour minister Bandaru Dattatreya passed the bill when only 53 members were present in the House. The Minister after moving the bill said “This is my humble gift to women, a day after the world celebrated International Women’s Day”. The President has to give his assent to this bill after which all working women both in public and private establishments will be entitled to 26 weeks of maternity leave. It will also be applicable to women working in Special Economic Zones.

The bill extends maternity leave from existing 12 weeks to 26 weeks for first two children and 12 weeks for third child and 6 weeks for fourth child. A woman can take eight weeks of paid leave before the due date of delivery and the left over post pregnancy.

The bill extends to women who adopt a child below age of three years will be entitled to 12 weeks of leave. In such cases maternity leave will be given from the day the child is handed over to the mother. The same applies to the mothers who opt for surrogacy.

Establishments employing more than 50 women will have to provide crèche facility at the work place or within the radius of 500 meters. The mother will be allowed to visit the child at least 4 times a day in crèche.

Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said “I am very, very happy that we have made history today. This will help thousands of women and produce much healthier children. We have been working on it for a long time.”