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Impact of Maternity Leave
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t's a huge undertaking when one becomes a mother for the first time and those who unwillingly have to take an unpaid maternity leave, there is much greater burden over them. What infuriates one even more is the fact that the abundant research in this field often gets ignored. This illustrates the significance that paid maternal leave can have not just for the mothers, but also for the family, children, societies and Shivangi Arya companies, too. IIM Calcutta The concept of Maternity leave has been designed to provide a compensated and jobprotected time-off from work which allows mothers to prepare for and recover from childbirth. It also gives way to both the parents to stay home and take care of their infants. According to the Maternity Benefit Act, passed by the Indian government in 2016, female workers are entitled to a maximum of 12 weeks (84 days) of maternity leave. In several ways and through multiple channels can the paid maternity leave affect the infant birth outcomes. The availability of paid time-off may contribute in reducing the physical and mental stress during pregnancy. It's a well-known fact that stress has shown to have adverse effects on infant endowments of human capital. This is substantiated and measured by the birth outcomes such as birth weight and gestational age. One of the positives of paid maternity leaves is that higher female labor force participation can be stimulated. When more women are employed, more pay income tax and government revenues rise. The other benefits, which are harder to quantify and monetize per se, are the positive consequences for those employees who try hard to manage between family and work life. It's perhaps interesting to know that originally the driving force towards deciding a postchildbirth leave was not the needs of children but the needs of mothers. Also, these policies for mothers and parents have not affected the organizations in any negative ways when it comes to short-term and intermediate leaves. However, there have been some downfalls when women employees took extended leaves (e.g., 3 years), particularly in the case of sequentially multiple leaves. If we think about the single or low-educated mothers, an access to paid ante-natal leave is of much importance for them as they are not highly likely able to afford an unpaid time-off. Also, they may have more physically demanding jobs like the ones involving standing, lifting, long hours, shift work, or noisy environments. These all can be associated with the negative environments for child birth. Additionally, the income related with paid leave aids in reducing mental stress. As Barack Obama rightly put it in one of his interviews- “Family leave, childcare, flexibility these aren't frills. They're basic needs. They shouldn't be bonuses - they should be the bottom line.” This needs to be kept in mind whenever there arises a need to change or modify the Maternity (and paternity leaves) that parents' time and care for the child are the building blocks for his/her life and hence, for a country. So, employers and organizations do need to take care of the new parents and join hands towards a better nation and world. References: 1. http://www.child-encyclopedia.com/parental-leave/according-experts/maternity-paternity-andparental-leave-policies-potential-impacts 2. https://www.businessinsider.in/The-science-behind-why-paid-parental-leave-is-good-foreveryone/articleshow/48368153.cms 3. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167629615000533 4. https://paycheck.in/main/labour-law-india/maternity-and-work