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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The New Maternity Benefits Act Disregards Women in the Unorganised Sector -Neeta Lal

The New Maternity Benefits Act Disregards Women in the Unorganised Sector -Neeta Lal

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published Published on Aug 22, 2016   modified Modified on Aug 22, 2016
-TheWire.in

The law will benefit only a minuscule percentage of women, while ignoring the majority who are working as contractual labour, farmers, self-employed women and housewives.

New Delhi: The passage of the landmark Maternity Benefits Act 1961 by the Indian parliament, which mandates 26 weeks of paid leave for mothers as against the existing 12, has generated more heartburn than hurrahs due to its skewed nature.

The law will also facilitate ‘work from home’ options for nursing mothers once the leave period ends and has made creche facilities mandatory in establishments with 50 or more employees. The amendment takes India up to the third position in terms of maternity leave duration after Norway (44 weeks) and Canada (50).

However, while the law has brought some cheers on grounds that it at least acknowledges that women are entitled to maternity benefits – crucial in a country notorious for its entrenched discrimination against women and one that routinely features at the bottom of the gender equity index – many are dismissing it as a flawed piece of legislation.

The critics point out that the new law will benefit only a minuscule percentage of women employed in the organised sector while ignoring a large demographic toiling in the country’s unorganised sector such as contractual workers, farmers, casual workers, self-employed women and housewives.

According to Sudeshna Sengupta of the Right to Food Campaign, India sees 29.7 million women getting pregnant each year.

“Even if the law is fully implemented,” the activist told IPS, “studies show that it will benefit only 1.8 million women in the organised sector leaving out practically 99% of the country’s women workforce. If this isn’t discrimination, what is? In India, women’s paid workforce constitutes just 5% of the 1.8 million. The rest fall within the unorganised sector. How fair is it to leave out this lot from the ambit of the new law?” asks Sengupta.

Kavita Krishnan, secretary of the All India Progressive Women’s Association, opines that maternity benefits should be universally available to all women, including wage earners.

“But the act ignores this completely by focussing only on women in the organised sector. In India most women are waged workers or do contractual work and face hugely exploitative work conditions. They are not even recognised under the ambit of labour laws. The moment a woman becomes pregnant she is seen as a liability. The new law has no provisions to eliminate this mindset, ” Krishnan told IPS.

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TheWire.in, 21 August, 2016, http://thewire.in/60414/indias-new-maternity-benefits-act-criticised-as-elitist/


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