As India celebrates the achievements of its working class on May 1, a critical question about lack of women employment continues to haunt the country. While issues related to women employment have existed historically, the government has been trying its best to improve the conditions. For example, the move to increase maternity leave benefit to 26 weeks from 12 weeks a year ago was a bold move.
However, experts had said that the mandate would make conditions worse for expecting female employees as the mandate could see companies hiring more male employees rather opting to hire female workers. The same has been suggested by a survey that said the move to increase maternity leave benefit to 26 weeks from 12 weeks may be “counterproductive”. The TeamLease survey explained that It may be noted that most sectors require continuous and dynamic working conditions and long leaves may disrupt operations.
Even as the move to increase maternity leave was increased a year ago, the survey suggested that employment of women might come down. It went on to explain that at least 26 percent of at least 350 startups and small-scale enterprises (SMEs) responded by saying that they would prefer hiring male candidates to avoid the cost of monthly maternity leave benefit.
Source: Times Now News
