[Resolved]  Accenture Services — True racism- Maternity Leaves

I work in an MNC in Bangalore and recently had to go through the company policies for maternity leaves. The company offers nearly 12 months of maternity leave for its employees in both US and UK. But for the employees in India, the leave is just 12 weeks (less than 3 months). Isn't this a bit unfair?

Everyday in the tv, we see ads about how important it is to breast-feed the baby during the first year and that breast milk is the only food to be given for the first six months. There are a lot of working women who are not able to do this for their babies just because they are expected to report back to work after 3 months of leave. Most situations, these employees have to take 1 month leave before delivery due to inability to work and hence in-effect get just 2 months to be with the baby before getting back to work.

Why do the companies treat female employees in different part of the world in different ways? I find this as an injustice done to women all across India by most MNCs. While the MNCs announce proudly about their employee-friendly policies and boast about providing healthy work environment for women, they are actually putting a lot of trauma on working mothers and causing problems to the next generation too.

There should be some law to enforce companies in India to give sufficient maternity leaves before and after delivery so that we have a healthy next generation.This would in-turn help companies too as I have seen a lot of women leave their jobs to spend time with their baby and then move to another company after 1-2yrs. The number of women who quit companies for this reason is considerably high. A few months of half-paid leave could keep the employees in the organization.