The Indian government’s new maternity bill, which comes into force this week, has been branded an elitist policy that will do little or nothing to help the vast majority of the country’s mothers.

According to women’s groups, the new rules – which raise maternity leave from 12 to 26 weeks, putting India ahead of France and the US – will apply only to a small fraction of the female workforce.

“It’s as if, for the government, 95% of India’s women don’t even exist,” said Juin Dutta, from Paatshala, a group helping impoverished female handicraft workers. She pointed out that the extension will only apply to women in the formal sector, which amounts to just 5% of India’s working women.

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, hailed the bill as “a step forward for Indian women” when he introduced details of the legislation on his monthly radio address this week.

“The basic aim is to ensure proper care of the newborn, the future citizen of India, from the time of birth,” he said. “The newborn should get the complete love and attention of the mother. That is how these children will become true assets of the country when they grow up. Mothers too will remain healthy.”

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Internationally, the bill has been touted as a success for India, which has one of the world’s lowest female employment rates – 25% – and where mothers often feel under pressure to leave their jobs after having children. A headline in Fortune magazine said India’s move “puts the US to absolute shame”.



But most Indian women will never reap the benefits, according to the International Labour Organisation. “India’s informal economy is huge, it employs over 435 million men and women who never see the benefits of government laws,” said Aya Matsuura of the ILO.

“In the informal sector, you never have to sign a formal employment contract and your relationship with the employer is unclear. For example if women work as maids – and up to 10 million Indian women work as domestic cleaners or cooks – they will not have signed a contract. They have a verbal agreement, so in reality they are not really covered by formal rules and are not recognised by law.”

Those working in the informal industries are among the most vulnerable, Matsuura said: “They have problems. If a woman gets pregnant, she has to find a temporary replacement for herself, like a sister or a sister-in-law. Otherwise, she loses the job.”

Pratibha R, of the Garment and Textile Workers Union in Bangalore, said the bill did little to resolve the problems of working mothers. “Our members are entitled to the 26 weeks, but what happens after? According to the new law, workplaces are supposed to provide creches on site, and women are supposed to be able to go see their babies four times a day, but in practice that doesn’t happen.

“The facilities provided are unclean and low quality, women don’t feel comfortable leaving their babies there. Women are very afraid to leave small babies there, and so they just leave after pregnancy.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A pregnant female worker at a construction site in Ahmedabad, in India’s Gujarat state. Photograph: Dinodia Photos/Alamy Stock Photo

A survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry suggests that a quarter of women in India don’t return to work after having their babies.

Reducing that number could increase India’s national income by 27%, according to the International Monetary Fund.

But increasing female participation in India is complex, said economist Rupa Subramanya. Maternity benefits may make women more willing to work, but they also make employers less willing to hire them.

“India is still a developing country. Countries like Norway can afford to give mothers a year’s maternity leave now but they didn’t have that while they were still developing,” Subramanya said.

LocalCircles, a citizen engagement organisation that surveyed more than 4,000 small businesses about the new maternity rules, found that 26% of firms said they would favour men over women because of the new rules.

Yatish Rajawat, chief strategy officer for LocalCircles, said: “There is a lot of political correctness on hiring for diversity. Many people say something and do the opposite. The fact is that business dynamics will take over politically ‘right’ things. Now businesses are looking at women and thinking I’ll have to pay two persons’ salary for one person’s work. Now employers will not just look at women’s qualifications and capability but also the fact that they come with an additional cost.”

One solution, according to Naiyya Saggi, founder of BabyChakra, India’s largest online community of mothers, would be to introduce paid paternity leave. “When an employer is deciding between a man and a woman, the burden of parental leave should be equally shared,” said Saggi. “The government hasn’t put in place proper childcare infrastructure for women, and instead has passed that burden on to employers.”

She said women still feel taking any time off would have a negative impact on their careers. “Six months is a long time in today’s world, with automation and artificial intelligence. Mothers already feel they need to be reskilled after taking that much time off.”

But Nidhi Gupta from the Takshashila Institute, a thinktank, said the law was a step in the right direction despite its limitations.

She said: “Women bring as much skill and talent to the table as men do. We go to the best schools, best colleges, as we are as talented and skilled as men are. So why should we be excluded?”

The argument that employers will be reluctant to hire women over maternity leave is unproven. “In the UK, when they introduced the Equal Pay Act, the same argument was made,” said Gupta. “But actually studies have shown that it has not made employers less willing to hire women.”