My Diary - Vaishali (Gandhi) Pargaonkar : December 2010

It was when 2 female colleagues of mine availed a ‘maternity leave’ I recollected that a few months back I had had a chance to enjoy sweets distributed by a male colleague. He was sharing his happiness for having become a proud father.

As an HR professional I started to wonder if men should be given paternity leave rights just like women enjoy the privilege of availing maternity leave……Yes. Men do not give birth to children (literally), but they do become fathers and apart from what’s fair and unfair to them a logical argument would make more meaning to an HR professional.

Paternity Leave Law in India:

In India, the Central Government endorses the concept of granting paternity leaves to fathers along with maternity leaves to mothers. And it also makes all Central Government employees eligible for paid benefits for availing such leaves.

Rule 551(A) - Paternity Leave – 6^th Central Pay Commission-

A male CG servant (including an apprentice) with less than two surviving children may be granted 15 days Paternity Leave during the confinement of his wife for childbirth
The Paternity Leave can be availed up to 15 days before or up to six months from the date of delivery of the child.
Paternity Leave shall not be debited to the leave account.
It shall not be refused under any circumstances.
During paternity leave, leave salary equal to last pay drawn is admissible.

Well, the law does say so….but the private sector is not bound by this law and hence need of an argument whether giving fathers time off is essential or is an extra privilege that may not be required.

On some secondary research about Paternity Leave laws in India and other countries, I realised that the most common need of the hour is to receive both income and job-protected time off after the birth of a child. Here are some arguments that people of different professions from different countries have put forth…..

Arguments ‘FOR’ granting Paternity Leaves:

In the early stages of parenting, the presence of both mother and father is equally important for the child
As the mother is recuperating from post-partum depression, it becomes difficult for the mother to look after the child alone. With the father around, not only he can offer help with domestic chores, medical care of mother and child, but also give the mother moral or emotional support, and spend quality time with his family. In the first week when the mother and child are at the hospital a lot of running around is required and can be taken care of by the father. Paternity leave becomes very important when there have been complications during childbirth and extra care needs to be taken.
With changing culture in India, and changing family structures where women are also working, most families in cities are nuclear and may also have parents or elders living in another city, state or country. Also today grandparents might also be working and hence, reliance on babysitters, nannies and maids increases. Not to forget, not all households can afford to hire maids / nannies to take care of the child.
Why burden only the mothers? And also, if mothers can get a maternity leave, then in these times of gender-equality why not paternity leaves to the father?
Father-child bond in the early stages of life is very important, and who says that father does not feel the need of spending time with his new born? Even the father wants to witness all the ‘first-time’ doings of his new born.
Like Mum, Like Dad: Fathers should be prepared to do tasks like changing their child’s nappies and feeding food to the newborn
Fathers do end up availing some leaves amortizing on their paid leaves. They have to save on leaves right from the wife gets pregnant so that they can support her after child birth. This can get stressful. And when the employee ends up availing excess leaves, he might even undergo a loss of pay, which at this crucial times of multiplied expenses adds to the stress
Will the male employee be productive at work when his mind and soul would be with his wife and the child, and would he not take leaves often in the first few days after the child birth?

Arguments ‘AGAINST’ granting Paternity Leaves:

We already have maximum number of public holidays as compared to any other country
Engaging mother and father at the same time for one cause is not justified / necessary
The ‘man’ is not much helpful in pregnancy days. The pains and complications of pregnancy can be shared and solved with the women friends / relatives only.
Women in India generally go and live with their parents during delivery and few months afterwards
By taking 10/15 days leave, the couple increases chances of quarreling instead of helping each other
Men cannot waste time for long or afford any disruption in their career. They must not give priority to emotional feelings over career. Men would not like to put their career on hold, or give it a break
Men around the house during daytime are more of a hindrance. In India still....men are not that domesticised, maybe a decade down the line, things may change
Someone has to work to maintain the cash flow
Women are hardworking and dedicated unlike men. Handling of such responsibilities by men will only come with time. Hence, it is better to increase maternity leaves

Laws in Other countries:

· SWEDEN: A Revolutionary Policy

Parents are entitled to a total of 480 days paid leave per child, with both mothers and fathers entitled and encouraged to share the leave. The leave can be taken at any time until the child reaches the age of seven. Mothers and fathers are expected to share the 480 days equally. It is possible for one parent to take up to 420 days of the total leave, but the remaining 60 days are then reserved for the other parent. In addition to the paid leave of 480 days per couple per child, you are entitled to reduce your working time by 25 percent. This, however, is not compensated for by the state.

Companies in India that grant Paternity Leaves:

Amongst many, below are a few companies that grant Paternity Leave to employees:

NIIT claims to be the first to offer paternity leave from 1995.
Employees of Infosys are eligible to avail three continuous working days of paternity leave and this option is available for the birth of the first two children.
Omega Healthcare services – 5 days
Datacraft India – 3 days
Wipro Technologies – 0 days
MNC’s in India such as Google, Cisco, Accenture, and Intel, most of which have paternity policies in place. Cisco Systems' India office has the most generous paternity leave of 12 weeks followed by Google India, which offers two weeks. Other multinationals which offer the privilege to their Indian staff include HSBC and Eli Lilly.

MY TAKE ON THIS:-

My Vote: ‘FOR’ granting paternity leaves to male employees

Entitlement to employees only up to 2 children by private sector companies
Paid Paternity Leave of 10 working days at the minimum be granted immediately on child birth (100% pay)
Entitlement to reduce working time by 25 percent during the first month immediately after availing 10 days of paid leave benefit
Paternity leave of 15 days be granted during the first 3 months at half pay (50% pay)