-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...
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Social activists dissatisfied with budgetary allocations
-Press Release from Delhi Pension Parishad Activists from seven major campaigns stated unequivocally that the Union Budget for 2016-17 far from ‘Transforming India’, as claimed by the Finance Minister, Shri Arun Jaitley, is neglecting the interests of farmers, the poor and vulnerable both in nominal and real terms and subjecting every life-affirming program to severe budget cuts. Activists from seven major campaigns such as the Right to Food Campaign , the...
More »Breastfeeding can cut child deaths, save Rs 4k crore per year -Himanshi Dhawan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: While the enormous health benefits of universal and sustained breastfeeding of children are well known, new evidence suggests that there is a significant economic cost as well. Research by medical journal Lancet reports a loss of $0.6285 billion or about Rs 4,300 crore annually. Not just that. If India were to universalise breastfeeding in the coming years, it could reduce 13% of all under-5 deaths...
More »Let’s register sex of foetus, says Maneka -G Sampath
-The Hindu Striking a startlingly contrarian note on the social evil of prenatal sex determination and resultant female foeticide, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, speaking at a media event in Jaipur, suggested the determination of the sex of the foetus from the moment pregnancy is detected. “It is really not feasible to go around trying to catch every ultrasound technician for revealing the foetal gender to parents in...
More »The strong case for a policy on paternity leave in India -Shalini Nair
-The Indian Express The Labour Ministry’s four-year-old report acknowledged that for women, decent maternity leave alone “results in mounting a very huge pressure of family, childcare responsibilities as well as demands of workplace”. The Labour Ministry, on the recommendation of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, will amend the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, to increase maternity leave in the private sector from 12 weeks to 26. This is being done...
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