The Lok Sabha yesterday passed the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 which will raise the maternity leave for working women in public and private sector from 12 weeks to 26 weeks for the first two children. The maternity leave beyond the first two children will continue to be 12 weeks.
The bill will now be sent to the President for his assent before it becomes an Act. It has already been passed by the Rajya Sabha during last winter session.
Recognising that women who adopt or use a surrogate to bear a child also need time to bond with the child in the initial months, the bill also extends a 12-week maternity leave to adapting and commissioning mothers. The commissioning mother has been defined as “one whose egg is used to create an embryo planted in surrogate’s womb.”
However, the bill has left out surrogate mothers from the benefit -- an issue over which the government had faced criticism from the opposition benches in the Rajya Sabha during the winter session.
The bill will now be sent to the President for his assent before it becomes an Act. It has already been passed by the Rajya Sabha during last winter session.
Recognising that women who adopt or use a surrogate to bear a child also need time to bond with the child in the initial months, the bill also extends a 12-week maternity leave to adapting and commissioning mothers. The commissioning mother has been defined as “one whose egg is used to create an embryo planted in surrogate’s womb.”
However, the bill has left out surrogate mothers from the benefit -- an issue over which the government had faced criticism from the opposition benches in the Rajya Sabha during the winter session.