Paternity leaves: The important thing causes for deficiencies within the Indian childcare system is the absence of framing it as an employment-enabling infrastructure, argued the Financial Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM). It cited the ‘motherhood penalty’ that places the onus of kid-rearing on the mom and referred to as for gender-neutral childcare leaves and insurance policies.
The paper, titled ‘Re-imagining the Care Financial system: From Personal Burden to Social and Financial Infrastructure’, authored by Dr Shamika Ravi, member of the EAC-PM, Mitali Nikore, founder and chief economist at Nikore Associates, Dr. Bhabesh Hazarika, Economist, Nationwide Institute of Public Finance and Coverage (NIPFP), and Sindhuja Penumarty, Younger Skilled at EAC-PM, spoke of a phased method to parental go away reforms.
“The motherhood penalty thus arises not from maternity safety per se, however from its isolation inside a broader care regime. This wants pooled financing devices and incremental reforms in gender-neutral childcare leaves,” the council argued.
LOW FEMALE LABOUR PARTICIPATION
The council mentioned that maternity go away alone is an incomplete clarification for India’s low feminine labor drive participation (FLFP). Nevertheless, regardless of rising academic attainment, stringent employer incentives contribute to the disconnect.
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Components akin to absence of mandated paternal go away and selective childcare leaves inherently places girls as default caregivers. Paternity go away provisions are nonetheless minimal – male central authorities workers are entitled to fifteen days of go away, whereas there aren’t any statutory mandates for the personal sector. There are some state governments, together with Sikkim, which are an exception and supply 30 days.
GENDER-NEUTRAL LEAVES
The EAC-PM mentioned that internationally there’s a shift in direction of gender-neutral parental leaves. “Among the many G20 international locations, practically 50 per cent of the international locations have authorized provisions that supply parental go away and partially fund advantages to the first caregiver, no matter their gender,” they mentioned.
Some Nordic international locations actually have a ‘use it or lose it’ father quotas. Sweden has a 90-day particular person allocation, and Iceland an equal 6 month cut up. These norms have constructive spillovers on feminine workforce participation by “redistributing care duties extra equitably between dad and mom”, they mentioned.
The council recommended a “transition from maternity-centric to joint or shared parental go away” however with institutional redesign.
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SHARED PARENTAL LEAVES
The council mentioned India’s present parental go away framework focuses on maternity go away however research counsel that offering paid day off for childcare contributes to wholesome youngster growth, improves maternal well being, and enhances households’ financial safety. Proof additionally means that shared parental insurance policies improve males’s participation in care work.
The EAC-PM quoted an advisory issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment in 2024 to employers to:
- Guarantee steadiness between employment and caregiving duties for each women and men
- Take measures to encourage males additionally to take up versatile working time preparations to take part in care duties
Based mostly on this, the council recommended: “The MoLE might introduce phased reforms in parental go away provisions. The primary section might start by extending statutory paternity go away for workers within the personal sector. Within the second section, MoLE could revisit the size of those go away entitlements from a gender-neutral lens and think about mandating a extra gender balanced mixture of maternity, paternity and gender-neutral parental leaves.”
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