In Brief
- NCW proposes gender-neutral childcare leave and shared caregiving by parents.
- Recommendations aim to improve maternity and childcare laws nationwide.
- Suggests extending adoptive mothers' leave to 26 weeks.
- Calls for more childcare facilities and benefits for informal workers.
The National Commission for Women (NCW) has put forward several recommendations to enhance maternity and childcare-related laws in India. The commission advocates introducing gender-neutral childcare leave, urging the government to extend such provisions to the private sector to encourage shared parenting responsibilities between mothers and fathers.
NCW also recommends increasing the childcare leave duration for adoptive mothers from the current 12 weeks to 26 weeks, aligning their benefits with biological mothers. The commission has called for the establishment of additional childcare facilities and stressed the importance of family-friendly workplaces across the country.
In its proposals, NCW highlights the need to provide maternity benefits to informal sector workers, a group often excluded from existing labour protections. These recommendations aim to promote gender equality in caregiving and support working parents.
