Weaponised: Editorial on maternity leave and workplace discrimination

Does the right to maternity leave sit uneasily with India's workplaces? The Delhi High Court recently had to reiterate a basic principle: pregnancy and maternity leave cannot be grounds for demotion at work for employees. For women returning from maternity leave, the transition can bring significant physical, emotional and professional challenges. For instance, Rakhi Bisht, the petitioner in the above mentioned case, found herself redesignated to a substantially inferior role. Justice Sachin Datta of the Delhi High Court has held that maternity leave cannot, under any circumstance, become a source of ignominy at the workplace. The judgment is significant because it identifies an insidious form of discrimination: the weaponising of maternity leave — a statutory right — against women workers. Law grants women maternity leave as a right. The workplace, however, often treats the exercise of that right as a professional liability. A woman should not have to be apprehensive that taking legally sanctioned leave will cost her a promotion, a meaningful role, or be a hindrance to a career. Yet this shared fear is hardly imaginary. Aon's Voice of Women Study 2024, India, which surveyed over 24,000 women across more than 560 companies, found that 75% of working mothers reported a career setback of one to two years after returning to work. Nearly 40% of these women noted that maternity leaves had led to an adverse impact on their pay; many found their work roles had been altered to positions they did not prefer. Another study published the same year in the Journal of Development Studies revealed that women became 4.3 percentage points less likely to be employed as regular salaried workers at establishments covered by such progressive policies. A statutory measure designed to protect women could, in the absence of adequate safeguards, reinforce employers' incentives to discriminate. Significantly, the court noted that neither the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, nor the Code on Social Security, 2020, expressly provides a comprehensive framework for post-maternity reintegration of women employees. Stronger and wider enforcement of the policy, transparent post-maternity reintegration measures and accountability for discriminatory attitudes by institutions are the need of the hour.