Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016 Passed by Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha yesterday passed the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which will raise the maternity leave for working women in the public and private sectors 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 the last winter session.
Recognizing 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 adopting and commissioning mothers. The commissioning mother has been defined as "one whose egg is used to create an embryo planted in a 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 Lok Sabha yesterday passed the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which will raise the maternity leave for working women in the public and private sectors 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 the last winter session.
Recognizing 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 adopting and commissioning mothers. The commissioning mother has been defined as "one whose egg is used to create an embryo planted in a 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.