Kohli’s decision of availing paternity leave has earned both praise and criticism from fans. While some are commending him for being with his wife during such an important time of their life, others have said he is in “dereliction of national duty” as he is leaving an important series for personal matters. This has reignited the debate regarding paternity leave in India, with a focus on its prevalence, acceptance and support through corporate policies.
When his daughter was born about two years ago, Chennai-based Rajiv Kunnekat (42) took three days of paternity leave. That’s what his organisation offered then and he happily took the time off to be with his wife and daughter. What would Rajiv do if he was offered a month’s paternity leave? “I would not skip work for that long. Maybe I would take the leave in a staggered manner over some time. What I have generally seen is that men do not take this long a leave — it’s a mindset issue that the workplace may or may not appreciate someone taking such a long time away from work,” says Kunnekat.
There’s a growing number of companies offering a gender-neutral parental leave policy that encourages men to share child-care duties with their partners. While that’s a progressive move, not many men are going for it. Most are hesitant to take the entire leave in one go fearing an adverse impact on their career.
The government made provisions for paternity leave for all public sector employees in 1999 through the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rule 551 (A). This allows any male central government employee (including trainees and probationers) with less than two children to avail a 15-day paternity leave either 15 days before or within six months from the date of delivery of child.
Paternity leave is a rather new concept in the Indian corporate setup and most companies have started offering it in the last few years. There is no set time duration for paternity leave in corporate India. Public sector employees get 15-day paternity leave and many companies have adopted the same model. Most multinational companies have brought in the same policies that exist in their global offices to India.
For instance, tech giants Facebook, Deloitte and Microsoft offer their employees 17, 16 and 12 weeks of paternity leave respectively. Last year, food aggregator Zomato made waves after rolling out a 26-week paternity leave for its employees. This is among the highest duration of paternity leaves in India. But this is not the norm. Most companies offer paternity leave between 5-15 days.
Cyient, a global engineering, manufacturing, and digital technology solutions company, recently announced a gender-neutral 12-week parental leave policy. Krishna Bodanapu, MD & CEO, Cyient, said they wanted to make parental leave equitable and inclusive, which will help boost diversity. Bodanapu says Cyient encourages men to participate more actively in parenting. “Unfortunately, our social fabric has conditioned men to play a limited role in the early months of parenting. Earlier, I don’t think men took even the one-week paternity leave that was offered to them due to the apprehensions of being disadvantaged at the workplace. This policy is really about equitable parenthood that isn’t restricted by genes, gender, or geography,” says Bodanapu.
Experts believe most new fathers would like to take time off. But it’s another matter that even while on paternity leave, men may be glued to their phones and laptops for work. During the pandemic, a professional who had just become a father, put out a post on LinkedIn to show how, thanks to the “work from anywhere” culture, he has been able to be with his wife and the newborn while working at the same time. The picture he posted with his laptop beside the hospital bed was liked by many. However, what everyone missed was that the person was “working” at a time when he should be on paternity leave.
Nirmala Menon, CEO, Interweave Consulting, a diversity consulting firm, says: “Companies began giving longer periods off, including some of them making it equal to maternity leave, just recently. A few years ago, even if the company offered longer paternity leaves, most dads didn’t use it fully. It would be interesting to see how many men use it fully now. I sense that it will become more common for men to take time off for their children. With more women working and in nuclear homes, it is a clear expectation that their partners will contribute equally. I guess that while women will use maternity leave at one stretch, men are more likely to take it in installments over the first year of the child.”
For many men, the worry that a six-month break may become a career setback, is quite real. New mothers often find it difficult to get integrated in the workforce afterwards. In our social set-up, where men are still considered the “breadwinner”, men may not be comfortable availing paternity leave.
In several companies, parental leave can be availed by new fathers anytime within a year of becoming a parent. Diageo India, for instance, introduced a policy that applies to all new parents and can be availed by new fathers anytime within 12 months of the birth/ adoption of the child, thereby allowing the mother to better manage her career as well as other priorities. Allowing women to better manage their careers is key as studies have revealed that such policies aid women workers in their careers.
Maternity and child care is one of the key reasons why women drop off the workforce, and if organisations want to retain their women’s talent enabling men to take the time off and share child care responsibilities would be crucial. Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg had famously taken two months of parental leave on the birth of his first daughter.
In 2015, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg declared that he would be availing a two-month paternity leave, it was still a novel concept. Since then, a lot has changed across the world.
Yet, India remains among the 90 out of the 187 countries in the world that do not have national policies to ensure that new fathers get adequate paid time off with their babies. Are corporates and their employees in India prepared to embrace the evolving role of fathers in families?
