Maternity leave for parents of child born through surrogacy

• The Centre has notified rules to allow women government employees to take 180 days of maternity leave in case they have children through surrogacy.

Highlights:

• According to the changes made in the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, the government has also allowed the "commissioning mother" (the intending mother of the child born through surrogacy) with child care leave besides paternity leave of 15 days to the "commissioning father"
• In case of surrogacy, the surrogate, as well as the commissioning mother with less than two surviving children, may be granted maternity leave of 180 days, in case either or both of them are government servants
• Till now, there were no rules to grant maternity leaves to women government employees in case a child was born through surrogacy.
• Existing rules allow "a female government servant and single male government servant" child care leave for a maximum period of 730 days during entire service "for taking care of two eldest surviving children, whether for rearing or for looking after any of their needs, such as education, sickness and the like".
• The "surrogate mother" shall mean the woman who bears the child on behalf of the commissioning mother and the expression "commissioning father" would mean the intended father of the child born through surrogacy

Prelims Takeaway

• Surrogacy
• Maternity