{"id":3030,"date":"2010-09-25T20:42:17","date_gmt":"2010-09-25T15:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/?p=3030"},"modified":"2012-01-15T06:25:51","modified_gmt":"2012-01-15T00:55:51","slug":"is-maternity-leave-unfair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2010\/rights-and-freedoms\/is-maternity-leave-unfair.html\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Maternity Leave unfair?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I don’t mean to kick up a shitstorm, but I’d like to get this out of my system. Maternity leave is unfair! At least it’s blatantly unfair to those of us who don’t decide to have children. I remember having an interesting debate on IHM’s blog<\/a> regarding this some time ago.\u00a0This also applies to men who get paternity leave.<\/p>\n

\"Maternity
Maternity - a personal choice?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The way I see it, having a child is a choice a parent makes. A difficult choice true, and one that entails a lot of suffering, but a personal choice nonetheless. Their choices are their own, and I assume they’re not doing it as a service to society, but for their own selfish reasons. So my point is that if parents can make a personal choice and get time off for it, non parents should also be given time off for their other personal choices.<\/p>\n

So if I feel the need to go and do some soul searching for a few months, I should be able to get leave in the same way that maternity and paternity leave is granted. Both are personal choices and I feel both must be treated on an equal footing.<\/p>\n

Some say that maternity leave is the same as accident leave. It’s not. An accident is just that- an accident. Becoming a parent is a choice. And granting someone leave for their choice and not doing the same for another is unfair treatment in my eyes.<\/p>\n

Another view is that women bear all the discomfort of pregnancy and childbirth and so they should be granted leave. But again, isn’t that a choice to bear that discomfort for their personal reasons? Moreover, suppose I want to go explore the jungles, that too is a dangerous undertaking and might even kill me. Will I get leave (paid or unpaid)\u00a0for a few months to pursue my dream? No.<\/p>\n

Some say that women in India don’t really have a choice to become pregnant. While this is certainly true in many cases, I feel that a woman working for a company that’s sophisticated enough to give maternity leave isn’t as helpless as another woman in the villages. Moreover, being forced to have a child is a bad reason to have one. If domestic violence is an issue, then the problem is not maternity leave but something else entirely! Also, maternity leave is common not just in India, but also in developed countries the world where women aren’t coerced into getting pregnant.<\/p>\n

Finally, there are those who say that having a child is a service to society. I have to say “Gimme a break!” No woman chooses to get pregnant saying “I must do this for the good of mankind” and in India I don’t think extinction of the race is anywhere around the corner.<\/p>\n

So what’s the deal here? Why is<\/em> maternity and paternity leave much more prevalent than say “Soul searching” leave, or just “Personal leave” for a few months in India?<\/p>\n

[poll id=”23″]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maternity is a personal choice and it’s unfair to deny leave for other personal choices<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rights-and-freedoms"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Maternity Leave unfair?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Maternity is a personal choice and it's unfair to deny leave for other personal choices\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2010\/rights-and-freedoms\/is-maternity-leave-unfair.html\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Maternity Leave unfair?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Maternity is a personal choice and it's unfair to deny leave for other personal choices\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bhagwad.com\/blog\/2010\/rights-and-freedoms\/is-maternity-leave-unfair.html\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Expressions - 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