To those who commented on my posting, let me offer a few further words.
I am well aware there are labour (and other) laws in India. I would assume that most of the bigger organisations in India would comply with those laws. Whether some of those laws are in step with labour laws in western countries, is a matter I have no direct knowledge.
My comments about HR practices that I find appalling relate to things that I have read here, ie, people being sacked without due cause, indenturing people for several years and not allowing them to leave, withholding original certificates etc, to force people to stay (aka slavery), sacking pregnant women, and the list goes on.
Leave is a touchy subject - anywhere in the world.
I will say up front that Australians are not much better when it comes to leave. We have extremely high absentee rates here as everywhere else. Studies have shown that Australian employers lose billions of dollars over a year due to absenteeism.
Australians, like other nationalities, are fond of using sick leave for other purposes, aka "a doona day", where they just can't be bothered getting out of bed! Sick leave skyrockets on Fridays and Mondays, Fridays because they want a "long weekend" and Mondays, because they partied too much at the weekend.
Australia is maybe a little different to India, in that we only work a 5 day week in the main. Saturdays and Sundays are off days, so people have an opportunity to do personal things at weekends. We also have 4 weeks annual vacation leave, which many people tend to break up into small holidays during the year, rather than take it all in one go. In many companies, you can also carry leave over to the following year, so if planning a long holiday overseas, you could take 8 weeks of fully paid leave - subject of course to operational requirements.
Sick leave etc, is now mostly called personal leave, and encompasses being sick, medical appointments, leave for funerals, looking after sick children, aged relatives etc etc. I am not sure what the current awards give, but in my last position (government job), I got 21 days a year of personal leave. If I didn't use it, then it accumulated. I worked with people that had more than 24 months of accumulated sick leave. Quite handy if you get a serious illness. I was once off sick for 8 weeks, and had more than enough leave to cover it.
I would also point out that sick leave in particular is controlled to the extent that most employers will allow a person to take up to 4 single days in a year (in most cases) without a medical certificate, and no questions asked. Most employers will not allow an employee to take more than 2 consecutive days without a certificate. It has created a lot of debate here. If you get a cold, which could lead you to require say 3 days bed rest, you must go to the doctor and get a certificate, even though the doctor can basically do nothing for you other that order bed rest! The cost of seeing the doctor makes people reassess the need to stay home. That of course also leads to the problem of sick people presenting for work, and infecting everyone else in the office!
But, Australians do abuse the system, and once they have used up their vacation leave, start using up their sick leave for reasons other than being sick.
Leave without pay is another option, and some people will forego a day's pay, if they have no other options.
This is a very simplistic view of the situation here, but I reiterate that we are by no means perfect here, and I never said we were.
I hope that clarifies my comments.