New Delhi, March 26: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday announced an enhanced maternity leave for working women while addressing the nation through his monthly radio-broadcast – ‘Mann Ki Baat‘. “Working women will now be given maternity leave of 26 weeks, instead of the earlier 12 weeks, for their pregnancy and delivery,” PM Modi said.
Adding further, he said that the basic aim of increasing the duration of the maternity leave is to ensure proper care of the newborn, the future citizen of India, from the time of birth.
Earlier on the occasion of International Women’s Day on March 8, this year, the Maternity Benefit Amendment Bill 2016 which was pending in Parliament for nearly nine months, was passed. It entitled the women employees in the organised sector to get six months of paid maternity leave.
