While some startups hailed the development as a progressive step, many said they cannot afford the cost of hiring somebody, who may be absent from work for such a long period.
Some said they will consider the maternity bill clauses during the hiring process, while others said the move could have a negative impact on their ecosystem and tilt the scale in favour of male employees.
“The recent amendment is promising but I feel early stage or growth-stage startups will show some apprehension while hiring married women,” said Jubin Shaju, associate VP, HR at Chillr, a digital payment app. “Startups usually have action-based roles. The possibility of somebody not being able to contribute for six months at a stretch will be a huge deal breaker.”
Pratish Sanghvi, Director and Co-Founder of Grab, a logistics service for business and merchants, said: “The increase of more than double of maternity benefits days shall definitely have an impact on costs or we have to accept lower productivity levels in some functional areas. While we are in favour of this initiative, the increase from 12 to 26 weeks should have been done gradually over years.” Women entrepreneurs, Upasana Taku, co-founder of digital wallet Mobikwik and Suchi Mukherjee, founder and CEO of Limeroad, echoed similar sentiments.
Taku, a new mother, said the new provisions in the bill make it an unrealistic proposition for smaller firms, as there are already fewer women in the tech startup space. “Some startups are not even six months old,” she said. “And such a long break could become counter-productive for a woman’s growth. Ideally, they should be able to learn how to balance work and family by the end of three months. However, exceptions should be built in. While three months of paid leave as a law is better than most Western countries, it should protect against discrimination of women, who need more unpaid leave.”
Mukherjee said a new mother needs a lot of help to come back after a long break. “Our biological clock coincides with our career graph. It is a fact that many women opt out of their jobs to raise their children, when they are at the peak of their careers,” she said. “However, for an unfunded startup, affording six months’ salary for almost no productive work is close to impossible.”
The new bill puts India in the same bracket as Ireland and Poland. Both countries allow 26 weeks of maternity leave. “Considering the global average, paid-leave policy is over 20 weeks, the move to 26 weeks of maternity leave is a strong statement of support of working mothers and reduces the possibility of them quitting careers,” said Vinay Pillai, Co-Founder of video-streaming platform Dekkho.
“However some mandates like making it a compulsion only in firms which are over 50 employees and the employee being at the firm for over 12 months are needed to protect early stage companies and small businesses,” added Pillai.
Apart from providing work-from-home options after the leave period gets over, the new bill also makes it mandatory for employers in organisations with 30 women or 50 employees, whichever is less, to provide creche facilities either in office or in any place within a 500-metre radius. “Large organisations operate on a different scale compared with startups,” said Kamal Karanth, former MD of staffing company Kelly Services and Kelly OCG.
“They have the resources to bear the cost. But, during my discussions with early- stage startups, which are already under a tremendous amount of stress, people told me the new bill could impact their hiring decisions. It all depends on what stage a startup is in.”
Source: Times of India