TBI Blogs: Why The Proposed Amendment To The Maternity Benefits Act Is Being Hailed As A Win For Women’s Rights
by The Daily Eye Team October 13 2016, 7:46 pm Estimated Reading Time: 0 mins, 50 secsWorkplaces tend to view an employee’s pregnancy as, at best, an inconvenience to the business and, at worst, a career-ending sentence. From time to time, women across the world have challenged this mindset and demanded equal treatment at the workplace. An employer’s denial of adequate maternity relief is a form of gender discrimination. It could also potentially infringe on an infant’s right to early childhood care, given that mothers often tend to be the primary caregivers. We have a long way to go before a father’s duty to provide equal care may be recognized. In order to foreground a woman’s right to maternity relief, one need not look too far. The Indian constitution forays with flair into the private spheres of society, i.e. the private sector as well as the family. It breaks the public-private binary that many feminists see as a barrier to permit violence within homes and private workspaces.