Why this 'kolaveri di' towards maternity?
Even if it comes a little late, women workforce all over India will be relieved and happy to note that the committee on social security at the recent Indian Labour Conference(ILC) has suggested that maternity leave for women employees should be raised to 24 weeks from the existing leave of 12 weeks. This is simply a suggestion, implementation of course will take time to happen. Compare this to what Europe is currently mulling over and you will understand how seriously they take this issue. The European Union is currently planning on ensuring that maternity leave of 20 weeks with full pay is granted to all working women. Presently UK "currently provides women with six weeks at 90 per cent ofsalary, followed by a longer period on a basic £123 a week." Of course the disparity that exists with regards to maternity leave and benefits in comparison to Europe is just one of the many aspects that women workforce all over India have to live with.
Most of corporate India are happy to give the requisite and legally approved leave for their female employees, however there are plenty of such examples when smaller firms have asked expecting mothers working within their organizations to quit and rejoin after a period of 6 months after the delivery just so that they do not have to pay the female employees their maternity leave pay. And in many cases women do nothing about it simply because they are scared that if they initate some action even the promise of getting their job back after the delivery, will be taken away. The leave is just one issue, the other issue is of re-joining work. After the delivery employees who are coming back after a maternity leave are expected to quickly pick up from where they had left off, more often than not, they may take time to get back into the groove, making their bosses rather impatient of them. Some women feel that their maternity leave was viewed as a holiday by their peers, like someone I know once said, "my co-workers treated my leave as if I had gone on a break or travelled to a foreign destination for fun".
I was witness to some more of such outpouring of issues related to maternity and work, at Avtar-I-Win Segue Sessions in Bangalore. I met tons of women professionals who confessed that "HR executives and placement agencies after hearing that I've taken a maternity break, stoicly respond saying 'we will get back to you'!" Women at the helm of different corporates made time to talk to women-who were trying to get back to careers after a break (break either owing to maternity or elder care). The sessions proved to be quite an eye-opener, because I never knew that there were so many professional women who had taken a break from their professional lives and were now trying to rejoin worklife once again. Apparently in India alone there are some 1.5 million women who are looking to make a comeback into their professional lives after having taken a break. All the women at the session had many apprehensions, mainly being, was corporate India willing to welcome the 2nd career woman(as professional women who have taken a break are supposedly called)?
So while there were a few companies like Tata who with their Tata 2nd Career Internship programs were willing to make some consideration for women coming back after a break, there are many others who are unwilling to formalize any kind of a plan.IBM has flexi-hours work policy for experienced women coming back into work, Accenture has many programs for its women work-force including a 24x7 emergency helpline while Mindtree consulting has a day-care center for its women employees and there are plenty of other corporate houses who empathise with the needs of working women who are seeking better and greater work-life integration.
Most of corporate India are happy to give the requisite and legally approved leave for their female employees, however there are plenty of such examples when smaller firms have asked expecting mothers working within their organizations to quit and rejoin after a period of 6 months after the delivery just so that they do not have to pay the female employees their maternity leave pay. And in many cases women do nothing about it simply because they are scared that if they initate some action even the promise of getting their job back after the delivery, will be taken away. The leave is just one issue, the other issue is of re-joining work. After the delivery employees who are coming back after a maternity leave are expected to quickly pick up from where they had left off, more often than not, they may take time to get back into the groove, making their bosses rather impatient of them. Some women feel that their maternity leave was viewed as a holiday by their peers, like someone I know once said, "my co-workers treated my leave as if I had gone on a break or travelled to a foreign destination for fun".
I was witness to some more of such outpouring of issues related to maternity and work, at Avtar-I-Win Segue Sessions in Bangalore. I met tons of women professionals who confessed that "HR executives and placement agencies after hearing that I've taken a maternity break, stoicly respond saying 'we will get back to you'!" Women at the helm of different corporates made time to talk to women-who were trying to get back to careers after a break (break either owing to maternity or elder care). The sessions proved to be quite an eye-opener, because I never knew that there were so many professional women who had taken a break from their professional lives and were now trying to rejoin worklife once again. Apparently in India alone there are some 1.5 million women who are looking to make a comeback into their professional lives after having taken a break. All the women at the session had many apprehensions, mainly being, was corporate India willing to welcome the 2nd career woman(as professional women who have taken a break are supposedly called)?
So while there were a few companies like Tata who with their Tata 2nd Career Internship programs were willing to make some consideration for women coming back after a break, there are many others who are unwilling to formalize any kind of a plan.IBM has flexi-hours work policy for experienced women coming back into work, Accenture has many programs for its women work-force including a 24x7 emergency helpline while Mindtree consulting has a day-care center for its women employees and there are plenty of other corporate houses who empathise with the needs of working women who are seeking better and greater work-life integration.
I have friends in IBM. Post maternity leave they were allowed to work from home for as long as they wanted; they could join conference calls etc from home...which I thought was super cool.....
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