In K. Umadevi v. Government of Tamil Nadu, 2025 INSC 781, the Supreme Court examined whether a government employee was entitled to maternity leave benefit on the birth of her third child.
The case involved a government schoolteacher who was denied paid maternity leave for the birth of her third child because of a rule that allowed the benefit of maternity leave only for the birth of the first two children. She challenged the decision, arguing that maternity leave is not a favour, but a basic safeguard for a woman’s health, dignity and equality at work. The employee, in this case, was not employed by the State Government at the time of the birth of the first two children.
The Supreme Court held that the right to maternity leave is rooted in the constitutional guarantees of dignity, health, privacy and equality under Article 21 and cannot be restricted by arbitrary conditions such as the number of children. The Court held that paid maternity leave is not simply a statutory benefit but a constitutional entitlement that public employers must uphold.
While the judgment is a welcome affirmation of reproductive rights, it does not change the reality that the law for private establishments continues to treat childcare as a woman’s responsibility. Maternity leave and related benefits in the private sector are only available to mothers, with the entire cost falling on the employer. There is no comparable entitlement for fathers. What seems progressive in principle can in practice reinforce stereotypes, leading employers to view women of childbearing age as costly hires or to offer short-term roles to limit exposure. This structure ultimately raises a larger question — should child rearing be treated in law as solely a woman’s role, or is it time to recognise it as a shared responsibility that demands gender neutral and more equitable support?
Many countries have moved beyond maternity leave by offering shared parental leave, dedicated paternity leave to involve fathers, or state subsidies to ease costs for employers. Sweden, for instance, offers paid parental leave of 480 days that can be shared, with a portion reserved exclusively for fathers. In the United Kingdom, employers pay statutory maternity and paternity leave, but most of this cost is reimbursed by the government, ensuring that the financial burden does not rest solely on individual businesses.
Canada offers up to 18 months of parental leave, funded through the federal employment insurance program rather than by individual employers. France offers 16 weeks of state-funded maternity leave (extended to 26 weeks for a third child), paid paternity leave of 25 days, and the option for either parent to take extended unpaid parental leave with certain state benefits.
Paternity leave is available by law only to central government employees, who are entitled to 15 days of paid leave under the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules. Some states offer similar benefits, though the duration and conditions vary. In the private sector, however, there is no statutory paternity leave, with such benefits being entirely policy driven. India does have a state-backed model for maternity benefits under the Employees’ State Insurance Act, where paid leave is funded through employer and employee contributions, but it covers only a narrow segment of the women workforce.
The government had an opportunity to address these concerns during the consolidation of labour laws through the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, but did not do so. The Code largely maintains the existing maternity leave framework and does not introduce parental leave, paternity leave or any cost-sharing mechanism. This was a chance to move towards a more modern and gender balanced framework — one that treats childcare as a shared responsibility and distributes costs between the State, employers and families. Alas, a missed opportunity!
For India to correct this, it must now take bold legislative steps. Implementing such a change will require political will, constructive engagement with employers and clear public messaging to reshape social attitudes. This would help create a labour market where merit, not gender, determines opportunity, and a society that recognises caregiving as a collective duty rather than a private burden placed on women. It would also show that India is ready to move past stereotypes about work and family and build a system that supports both a stronger economy and a fairer, more equal society.
The article has been authored by Vinay Joy, partner, and Srishti Ramkrishnan, counsel at Khaitan & Co.
Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of NDTV Profit or its editorial team.
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