Paternity leave

When it comes to gender equality most employers claim to be pro women and are more than eager to explain how they ensure women do not get the feeling of a lesser mortal in their organization.

Yesterday I came across the term 'paternity leave' while reading something on mint.

During evenings I am often at my elder brother's place. He had to take leave yesterday because baby was feeling too sleepy and bhabhi had to attend an important meeting. The daily routine of leaving him at day care could not be followed so bhaiya decided to go for the 'miss'. So, when I said to bhabhi "today I read about paternity leave, isn't that a great idea?" Well, to my surprise she replied - such a leave does exist and to my utter surprise she informed it's a 1 week leave!

What is the 7 day leave for? May be it is a gesture from the employer of the would be father to acknowledge that they know his wife is expecting so he should be with her during that time.

"What if companies could give one month paternity leave every year till the child is 3 years old or so?" When I muted this to bhabhi, she was very much in favor of it.

So why don't HR managers come up with something like that. One reason could be, If the father takes leave to take care of the baby allowing the wife to go on work, it does not give any fruits to husband's employer in fact it adds to the productivity of wife's organization. So this step would be considered to be one for the benefit of other organizations.

But, this could be a good tool for the companies who take this as an initiative because this would definitely make the father think many times before he decides to jump over to another company with no such arrangements. In fact in case of couples working in same industry, this could be an attractive policy to poach the other half by rewarding the first half with additional leaves because benefits would not go outside the company.

It would be like a bond for 3 years signed by the parents not for a few hundred thousand rupees but for the convenience of their child.