Maternity Law Legislations in India: A Contextual Discussion

Abstract

As women’s participation in the labour force has kept on growing, the questions about equitable employment opportunities have been raised. However, these equitable opportunities are not a single parametric function. Instead, there are many variables interacting multidimensionally and eventually resulting in different realized outcomes. The present study is an attempt to contextualize the specific aspects of maternity leaves in the context of India. The study reviews diverse relevant literature and utilizes the Eisenhardt method to anchor the analysis. The outcomes of the study validate the fact that the existing maternity law legislations in India are weak, hampering women labour force participation in India. It is simultaneously validated that one of the significant and fundamental reasons behind the developmental lag of India is rooted in these weak legislations. The study concludes by recommending some immediate policy interventions.

Introduction

Based on the remuneration received (or not), an activity can be classified either as a paid activity or as an unpaid activity. In an economy, all the activities can therefore be bifurcated as either belonging to the wage economy or to the care economy (Samantroy & Nandi, 2022). Predominantly, unpaid activities are summed up under the umbrella term of ‘care economy’. It includes tasks and chores such as cooking, cleaning, washing and taking care of family members. Generally, these activities are specific to the household settings. On the other hand, moving outside the house and doing any chore for economic and remunerative purposes is enlisted under the head of the wage economy (Folbre, 1994). There, however, happens to be a serious nexus between the care and the wage economy. To run a household, the simultaneity of both the wage and care economic activities is important. Traditionally, women have been burdened fully with the chores concerning the care economy and the managing of the households (Fuchs, 1988). They have been undertaking these chores in deprivation of any payment or remuneration from other members of the family or public institutions. And since the case has been culturally so, these women have hardly questioned the system for a long time in history. Being trained as the members of the household whose duty is to take care of others, the system of care and wage economic distinction has been running smoothly over centuries (Lutz, 2011). Women from across the world have happily been undertaking all the household chores without complaining or asking for anything in return. The traditional and cultural norms as part of the patriarchal institution have been moulded to fit its very premises. These institutions over time have shaped a systematic acceptance amongst women where they reason it as their moral and social responsibility to undertake these chores uncomplainingly (Sultana, 2010).

It was after the evolution of centuries that women came to realize that they actually needed (some sort of) independence and autonomous decision-making. In the absence of marketable skills, exposure and education, initially breaking from the shackles of the care economy and marching towards the wage economy turned out to be very difficult and challenging (Eisenstein, 1977). Steadily, it was realized that a woman, in order to become independent, needs to have (access to) basic education. She also needs to possess a specific set of skills and an exposure level that would help her survive and grow within the wage economy. The initiation of these processes and eventual outcomes have been diverse across the whole world (Dlamini & Adams, 2014). For example, the first-world countries advanced in the direction of women empowerment centuries ahead of the developing nations. Globally, however, an egalitarian picture of this sort is a far-fetched dream, evaluating the status quo. In the twenty-first century, however, women for the most part have found their voices. They are increasingly becoming vocal in explaining their selves and aspirations. They have been realizing their ambitions, asking for what they want (Sutherland, 1978). Progressively, from around the world, empirical evidence has been generated, which highlights the increasing educational attainments of women (Deuchar & Dyson, 2020; Mehrotra & Parida, 2019; Mitch, 2018). A growing number of female children are being sent to school. An increasing number of females take admissions in colleges and universities and end up completing their degrees (Luke & Munshi, 2011; Majeed & Mushtaq, 2023). The participation of women in the labour force is higher than ever and growing.

Based on this understanding, some primary questions arise that have not been raised and eventually answered to date. The very first question in this direction is: Are the positive outcomes and benefits of development equally divided between men and women? Does there exist a developmental divide between men and women possessing the same set of skills? Is development actually a practised reality of equality and equity between men and women? Are the needs of women different from those of men when it comes to their outcomes derived from an identical labour market? Do women need some specific kind of social security and protection while participating in an identical labour market as the men do? The present study is an attempt to analyse a specific aspect of the perceived developmental divide between men and women. The focus of the study is on the exploration of the gender divide between men and women possessing the same set of skills and participating in identical labour markets. Given the expansive scope of the questions, the present study intends to touch on one fundamental aspect of the broader context, that is, the maternity leave context. The present study is a novel attempt to contextualize the issue of maternity leave in the context of women’s march into and the eventual stay in the labour market. Combining theoretical premises with the legality provisions of India alongside the review of focal literature, the study contextualizes the premises for a deeper and more focal analysis into the absent or weakly present prerequisite of sustainable women employment. The study concludes by arguing that access to maternity leave is a fundamental, explicit requirement and a prerequisite for women to participate in the labour market.

The second section briefly discusses the methodology and approach of the present analysis. The third section opens up the discussion on the context of the care economy. This is followed by an investigation of the scarcity hypothesis forwarded by Goode in the fourth section. The scarcity hypothesis is taken as the theoretical premise for the exploration of the research question. Since the study is based in India, the fifth section explores the working-age population of India. The very important aspects of youth bulge, increased literacy and missing women from the Indian labour force are dealt with in the sixth section. The legislative aspect of the research question is dealt with in the seventh section. For a context-centric understanding of the research questions, case studies are presented in the eighth section. The study concludes in the ninth section.

Methodology and Approach

The focal question raised above concerning the contextualization and exploration of the maternity leave is structurally dealt with and put to logical discussion in the subsequent sections. For the primary theoretic context of the study, the scarcity hypothesis is applied. To validate the context for India, the Eisenhardt methodology of 1989 is utilized. The method was further improvised by 2021.

The method is an eight-step approach. It makes an exhaustive use of three to ten case studies to both contextualize the theoretic underpinning of the analysis and at the same time to lay the grounds for the new proposition(s). After raising the research questions above, the theoretic underpinning is made. This is followed by utilizing the observation and survey methods of field investigation. Relating the case studies to the context of theoretic underpinning, axioms are derived for the Indian context.

The Care Economy

Based on the remunerative principle, an economy can be bifurcated into the care and wage economies, respectively. Initially, the wage economy was left to the partake of men, while the care economy was limited to the taskings of females (Folbre, 2006). The academic understanding from around a century ago comes up with several models, including Gary Becker’s Marriage Market model and the Universal Bread Provider model. These models strictly divided the economy into two fractions based on gender roles (Folbre, 1994). It was propagated that men should do the hard labour outside the domains of the household, while the females should stay indoors taking care of the household chores. The families evolved and formed in this specific way. Right from their early childhood, women were given the household-specific training, while it was impressed upon men to learn the marketable skills so that they end up earning a (decent) wage (Lobao & Meyer, 1995).

The disempowerment of women has been correlated with the traditional specialization of women in the care economic activities. The skill built-up of women within the care economy has over time limited women’s activities to the care fragment of the economy (Antonopoulos & Hirway, 2010). Being the primary caregivers imposes several limitations and restrictions on women, finances being the most manifest one. The costs of caring have been analysed by various studies and validated in terms of financial obligations, foregone wages, lost opportunities and lack of independence. These factors have been acting as push factors to motivate women to move out from the wage economy towards the care economy.

This has led to an eventual advocacy for women’s increased participation in the wage economy. Based on this factor, coupled with the women’s manifestation of willingness to work in the wage economy, coupled with their attempts at finding a way, the governments and policymakers over time have been coming up with policies to enhance women’s participation in the wage economy (Elson, 2017). While women’s participation in the wage economy has increased steadily over time, the ‘double day’ hypothesis has simultaneously been validated. It states that women who participate in the wage economy tend to lose leisure hours (Brimblecombe et al., 2020). After working outside, these women come back home and take care of the household and care chores, limiting their time spent on activities like sleep, leisure and self-care. Under the existing policy lopsidedness and limitations, the overall paid and non-paid work women have been increasing.

One of the crucial aspects within the ambit of the policy front is ‘pauperization of motherhood’ (Hirway, 2015). By the very dint of the biological make-up of a woman, some of the care responsibilities are inevitable. The primary ones are conceiving a foetus, birthing a child and taking care of her/him for the first few years of life (Antonopoulos, 2008). The policy inadequacy in this direction has led to a decline in the wage economic outcomes of the working women on account of pregnancy and the inability to rejoin the workforce immediately after childbirth (Goldin, 2014). A phenomenon in this direction that has been validated is known as ‘missing women’ who eventually tend to stay away from the workforce after embracing motherhood.

The Scarcity Hypothesis

As the empirical and theoretical advancement in interdisciplinary analysis has grown over the past few decades, a number of theories and testable hypotheses have been postulated from time to time. One of the very popular theories in this direction is the scarcity hypothesis. In 1974, Goode postulated his very famous scarcity hypothesis. As per the understanding propagated by Goode (1974), humans in general and women in particular have a fixed amount of time and energy. Eventually, whenever a new role is added to a person, he/she is destined to feel stressed. With every new role comes a new set of responsibilities and a new set of expectations. An overload of responsibilities towards a person can cause negative psychological consequences.

Typically, in the case of a woman, especially a working woman, pregnancy can come with its own challenges. A woman needs to face the health and precautionary challenges of nine months of pregnancy. On the birth of a child, a woman is laden with the added-on responsibility of keeping an infant alive apart from working towards her own physical healing. The process is especially difficult for the first six to eight months. Playing the role of a mother is one of the greatest challenges that women associate with their life course perspectives (Baruch et al., 1987). It adds to her already many roles and responsibilities. In the instances where the lady is already a participant in the labour force and associated with the wage economy, tasks become more sensitive and complex at her end.

Recent empirical results show that the energy that a mother requires for the first six months postpartum is equivalent to 2.5 full-time jobs (El Founti Khsim et al., 2022). In the realization of a pragmatic finding like this, if a woman is not granted adequate maternity leave and subsequent benefits, there is a high risk of her being exposed to depression and anxiety. Exposure to high levels of stress along with anxiety can hamper the stability of a woman’s life (Marshall & Barnett, 1993). By postulating the scarcity hypothesis, Goode cautions people and policymakers against causing stress, anxiety and depression to women. Furtherance of empirical research in the direction of the scarcity hypothesis postulates the fact that working women are at an added risk of stress, depression and anxiety (Barnett & Baruch, 1985). The chances of its occurrence increase manyfold when the woman under reflection is a working woman, employed under insecure contractual terms. Not only are the women shown the way out from the labour force during sensitive and challenging circumstances, but, at the same time, she is put at an added risk of falling prey to mental illnesses (Hyde et al., 1995). Analysing from a long-run perspective, the integrity of women and their sanity is compromised, all because of insecure working conditions and the absence of maternity-security legislations.

Working-age Population in India

India has recently overtaken China as the world’s most populous country. Given the demographic trends of the country contemporarily, India is experiencing a demographic dividend and a youth bulge. The working-age population of the country is going to increase approximately till 2030 (Majeed et al., 2022; Talreja, 2014). The age of the population is a highly time-bound characteristic. It keeps on changing and evolving. Accordingly, the outcomes and the needs of the population both vary over time. Theoretically, the government needs to take note of the demographic characteristics of its population at a(ny) point in time and formulate policies and plans accordingly (Laxmaiah et al., 2015). In the instances of success, a country can evolve highly across the developmental parameters. Contrarily, in the case of failure, a state grows miserable in terms of its outcomes and piling-up of present and future problematic consequences. It all sums up depending on the level of skills a state can imbibe in its youth force and working-age population (Chaurasia, 2019).

Recent trends in the birth and death rates of India have shaped a youth bulge across the country. In the contemporary times, the Indian economy possesses a considerably large working-age population, which it can never experience again anytime in the future (Majeed & Mushtaq, 2022). Proper utilization of this labour force requires the Indian government to plan ahead of time. For example, the capability approach and the human development argument have been advocated by several economists to make a proper utilization of the youth force (Mehrotra & Parida, 2021; Sen, 2000; Walker, 2005). These approaches require the governments of the said nations to focus completely on publicly funded healthcare provision, free education, skill imbibing of the population and human capital formation, among other measures, varying and changing from time to time. It is under the axioms of these approaches that the necessity of designing gender-sensitive policies is mandated. All the necessary changes towards gender mainstreaming cannot practically be implemented at once. Being structural in nature, societies have always manifested a reluctance towards such changes. As such, the process of transformation has to be slow. To begin with, the immediate and most pressing gender-sensitive policy changes need to be set in practice.

The 2011 census recorded the Indian young age population between 15 and 34 years as 231,000,000 individuals, constituting 19% of the Indian population (GoI, 2011). The number has certainly increased if not doubled up until the recent time (data for which are yet to be published by the GoI). It is further going to increase up to 2035. By 2035, one-third of India’s labour force will be categorized as a youth bulge. Approximately 12 million Indians enter the Indian labour force each year, and this trend is going to continue right up until 2035 (India, 2011). One of the positive aspects associated with the labour force and youth bulge in India is that the major portion of it is still in the student age. Pointing out the fact that if the government succeeds in making the right policies and plans, a major fraction of the young people can be educated, trained and imbibed with the required and necessary skills (Majeed & Mushtaq, 2022). The concern, however, is that the Indian government is barely able to spend the minimum portion of its GDP on youth; their health and skill formation. Of the 12 million people that enter the Indian labour force each year, around 90% are either unskilled or semi-skilled. The trained and skilled population of the Indian labour force is a mere 05% (Ghate et al., 2013). Government data and reports testify to the fact that the majority of Indians are under-skilled or unskilled, and paradoxically, the Indian economy is a skill-deficient yet labour abundant and intensive economy. A detailed survey of the Indian youth reveals that 65% of them wish to work as regular government employees; 19% of them want to be self-employed, while 07% say that they would prefer working in the private sector. On the realized front, however, 85%–90% of the Indian labour force is either directly or indirectly employed in the informal sector, validating the overall working conditions in the country as unsecure (Dasgupta & Kar, 2018).

Of the skilled labour force in India, barely 0.5% constitutes women. Females in India have mostly been finding employment in the informal sector. Women who manage to find employment in the formal sector are typically employed informally (Majeed & Rashid, 2023). This basic characteristic limits the chance and exposure of an average Indian woman towards being a beneficiary of any kind of social security or governmental assistance programme while participating in the labour force of the wage economy. The entire debate again reaches the conclusion that women’s presence and participation in the Indian job market in general and the formal job market in particular are extremely limited and skimpy (Agarwal, 1986; Colaco & Hans, 2018). The Indian economy continues to experience a youth bulge, and 50% of this youth bulge essentially consists of females (Majeed et al., 2023). The options of social security specifically dedicated to Indian females are one of the major challenges that the developmental trajectory of the country is currently facing (Zagha, 1998).

Youth Bulge, Increasing Literacy and Missing Women from Indian Labour Force

The context of an Indian woman is unique in itself. India, being a patriarchal and traditional society for an extended period in history, has not allowed its women to attain education and to participate in the wage economy. Critical and empirical evidence has been validating conservative social attitudes in India towards women (Bannerji, 2016; Chakravarti, 1993; Dutt, 2018). Regional, religious, social and political factors have equally contributed to keeping Indian women out of the labour force (Bannerji, 2016). There is a specific kind of social stigma that has been associated with an Indian woman for a long time, in case she decides to participate in the wage economy. Her movement outside the home in an attempt to earn a wage or earn money independently has systematically been prevented. Another strand of literature also verifies the fact that an Indian woman by her very circumstances and nature is dedicated to her family and the household (Mathes, 1975). Prioritizing the family and its welfare over participation in the wage economy has thus evolved as a characteristic.

Data and empirics validate a stagnant female labour force participation in India between 1987 and 2011 (Chaudhary & Verick, 2014; Lahoti & Swaminathan, 2016). Further empirical analysis validates a steady change in this trend after 2011 (Sanghi et al., 2015). A common inclination in an average Indian household is to marry the girls in households as well-off as possible. Following this phase, she is expected to stay within the household and take care of the domestic chores. Additional empirical analysis validates the fact that for 2011, the labour force participation of married women in India was about 18% (Andres et al., 2017). Over the years, no drastic change has occurred in this proportion (Lahoti & Swaminathan, 2013). It is because of the average trend of marrying girls in India before attaining the age of 20 years that the problem of missing women in India is a perceived reality. The cultural aspect of asking the females to stay within the households further adds to the problem (Moore et al., 2009). Statistics reflecting the school enrolments and pass-out percentages, college enrolments and completion and university enrolments in India for females are positive and highly significant. Contrarily, when it comes to labour force participation, the numbers are dim and depressing (Paul, 2020). These two opposing forces combine to make the Indian economy and its female labour force participation a unique case that no other country in the world resonates with.

Another reason which is not much debated yet contributing factor to the problem is the nature of available employment opportunities. Existing opportunities discourage women and their families from participating in the labour force. The nature of the employment that the women are able to find in the country does not suit their care responsibilities and skill sets (Jones, 2017). In many instances, it has been validated that women failed to find employment in the formal sector of the economy (Majeed et al., 2022). In a few cases, when they actually find employment in the formal sector, the nature of their individualistic employment for the most part is informal and contractual. The terms of these contracts favour the employer in every possible way and harm the females employed in every conceivable manner. Empirical estimations made by the ILO point to the fact that 91% of Indian working women are paid informally (ILO, 2018).

These women are given a considerably lesser wage compared to the marginal productivity of tasks that they accomplish. It creates a situation of a shadow cost–benefit analysis for them. Leaving their household and the care tasks unattended behind, women decide to work only when they feel that their employment will considerably benefit their kids, themselves and their households (Kashyap et al., 2015). In the Indian job market, where women fail to find secure employment, the consequence realized is a decision against participating in the wage economy. Countrywide instances like these trigger the number and ratio of missing women from the Indian labour force to rise further.

As already pointed, around 50% of the Indian youth bulge and labour force consist of women. Further, the context of missing women from the Indian labour force poses a big challenge to its developmental process and trajectory. In case this trend continues to persist in the Indian economy, there might be a digression between the potential and actual growth and development process of India. What the men and women could attain in (say) 50 years, men alone would take 100 or more years to accomplish the same.

Labour, Women and Maternity Legislations in India

India as a country is traditional, patriarchal, conservative and conventional at the social level. For an extended period over the history of the country, women have been barred from attaining education (Littrell et al., 2013). It has typically been observed that an average Indian woman is expected to be well versed in the household rather than marketable skills. She is expected to be culturally and traditionally inclined to the patriarchal norms of society (Sultana, 2011). She is also expected to take commands from her husband and simultaneously dedicate herself to caretaking activities (Bannerji, 2016). As such, an average Indian female is raised sensitively to fashion her preferences in favour of the household. Everything else has been projected secondary to her. As a result, the written history of right up to the modern era shows that an Indian woman has always preferred household welfare over everything else.

The concept of a working woman in India is comparatively novel and new. In the midst of the twenty-first century, it is still a challenge for an average Indian girl to complete a college education. The number of women attending university to attain tertiary education and to learn higher-order skills is even scant. Contrarily, the average age for a girl to complete college is 21 years minimum (Mies, 2014). The median marriage age of an average Indian woman is 19.2 years (Yadav et al., 2020). In a typical Indian household, as a girl enters college, her family starts looking for a match. In a year or two, the process is completed, and the girl is married off mostly before completing the college degree.

Given the population and size of India, some opposing forces are always at play simultaneously, making the end results often contrasting. For example, India currently has the largest population in the world, implying the proportion of its female population is equally high (Chandra, 2019). The government of India has been trying persistently to increase the literacy of the population in general and women in particular (Majeed et al., 2023). Overall numbers have started showing a change in the trend. The outcome of the government initiatives and policies can be seen in the increased number of admissions among the females of India at primary, secondary and tertiary levels (Sharmila & Dhas, 2010). On the opposing end of the promising statistics, a void can be identified in the form of missing women from the Indian labour force.

A detailed analysis of the government reports shows that female literacy in India has impactfully increased from 80.35% in 2010 to 91.95% in 2021. Enrolment of girls in higher education institutes has increased from 39% to 46% between 2007 and 2014. Discussing raw numbers, 12 million women have been enrolled in undergraduate courses across India during the 2013–2014 academic session (Samantroy & Nandi, 2022). Approximately six lakh women have been enrolled for diplomas during the same year. The number of girls qualifying for the 10th class examination has been higher than the number of boys. The gross enrolment ratio for women for the year 2014–2015 has been 22.7. However, the number of women actually completing their graduation courses is considerably low. The female enrolment for higher degrees is considerably low across the country. For an identical academic session, the number of women enrolled for the undergraduate courses has been 12.4 million. This number for postgraduation courses declines by a great number, stagnating at 1.9 million for the same year (Rana, 2022).

Given the enormity of the Indian population, it can be said that a vast portion of the Indian women and growing is actually completing college and university education. Recent reports of the Periodic Labour Force Survey in India for the years 2021–2022 validate a growing proportion of working women as compared to the previous reports (Abraham & Shrivastava, 2022). The number of women employed is increasing in India. However, this employment either is coming directly from the informal sector or comes in the form of informal employment within the formal sector (Mehrotra, 2019). These factors end up leaving the majority of Indian women outside social security and maternity benefit provisions.

A rise in the standard of life and persistently growing inflation have led to an increase in household needs. In contemporary times, it has often been witnessed that both men and women of the household need to earn a wage to maintain the expenditures. While, on the one hand, an increase in the paid employment of women is good, on the other hand, it has been increasing the work burden of women (Folbre, 2006). Apart from the regular duality of women’s work, it is a recognized fact that child-birthing and (initial) rearing is a special job that only women can do. For this purpose, maternity leave legislations have been advocated and have been in vogue for many decades (Hyde et al., 1995). The global average of (mostly) paid maternity leaves is 14 weeks, a standard mandated by the International Labour Organization’s Maternity Protection Convention of 2000. While 20% of the global countries provide 18 weeks of maternity leaves, 14% provide less than 12 weeks (Majeed, 2023).

In India, the recognition of the importance of women’s paid work dates way back before the independence era. The first Maternity Benefit Act in India was passed in 1929 by the Bombay government. Since then, many other acts have been passed. The major act in this direction is known as the Maternity Benefit Act (MBA) of 1961. The MBA Act has been amended several times to suit the evolving needs of women in India vis-à-vis the national labour market. The latest amendment in the MBA Act was made in 2017 (Gethe & Pandey, 2023). The MBA Act in its basic form applied to all establishments with more than 10 employees. Initially, it catered to all women working within the formal/organized segment of the Indian economy. It extended to the contractual and consulting women working within the organized sector along with those working on a substantive basis. Now the Act extends to women working well within the unorganized sector.

Extending to a period of 26 weeks, a woman is eligible for maternity leave if she has served the establishment for at least 80 days in the past 12 months before the expected delivery date. The benefits include paid maternity leave, other benefits and fringe benefits. In its amended version, the MBA Act extends to adopting mothers as well (Dadke, 2024). Fitting in to the thematic of the modern-day job market, the updated version has a provision of a work-from-home option if the nature of the work and the employer are willing to accommodate accordingly. The 2017 amendment makes it mandatory for the establishments to have facilities for feeding for the lactating mothers and a creche as well. It is simultaneously mandatory for the employer to educate women about the MBA Act at the time of hiring (Jadon & Bhandari, 2019).

On the practical front, however, most often only the women working within the formal segment of the Indian economy are able to take benefit of the MBA Act. The private sector, which is not strictly formal weekly, applies its provisions (Majeed & Mushtaq, 2022). While the MBA Act by its provisions applies to the unorganized sector, but employers therein barely adhere to the norms. Given the strictness of the Act, employers well within the formal sector have been manifesting an underwritten and not explicitly manifest unwillingness to hire women in places where men can fill in (Shivakumar & Manogari, 2023). The micro, small and medium enterprises sector of India, which is mostly nano, micro and start-up/entrepreneurial in nature, cannot afford to cover the maternity costs of its employees and, as such, is and will continue to be unwilling to hire more female workers (Majeed & Mushtaq, 2022b). This reluctance will lead to a shrinking in the employment opportunities for women across the country.

In totality, maternity legislations in India contemporarily are weak. While the MBA Act is in existence, adherence to it is negligible. As a result, women usually tend to leave the labour force at the onset of motherhood and later do not find a way back in. If the current trends continue to prevail without any interventions, the growth and development process of the Indian economy will suffer, and simultaneously, convergence in gendered outcomes would not be attained anytime soon. The context of discussion for the judicial aspect of the issue is highly limited. It is restricted by the fact that weak legislation and information asymmetry do not leave enough room for women’s agency. Women are forced and compelled to leave the labour market post maternity. In the absence of finding a way back into the waged economy, steadily women turn into full-time caregivers and nurturers not finding any scope to find justice within the judicial spheres of the country.

Case Studies

Case Study 1: Formal Corporate Sector

The corporate sector is labelled as one of the toughest labour markets to survive in. Though the corporate sector has come to advance a lot in terms of securing the work rights of its female employees, a considerably large portion of it still fails to provide equitable social security to women. The trend of taking professional degrees by females has seen a drastic shift in the previous three decades in India. Rather than going into fields such as social and home science, a growing number of young female Indians are seeking educational pursuits that have better employability. The number of women taking up professions like education and basic health care has drastically reduced. On the other hand, degrees such as engineering, specialized health professionals and marketing specializations have seen a drastic surge.

Madiha (pseudonym) is an MBA graduate from a top university in India. Being at the top of her class throughout, she grew up to become a competitive person. She was driven to pursue business education. While planning on doing that, she did thorough research on the best and top colleges. Her focus was to secure stable employment and move up the corporate ladder. She always worked overtime and extra to build on her skills. In the first year of college, she got a job offer that was already at a higher level, and she took it. Based on her performance, it was a realization across her office that she would move up the corporate ladder very fast. It was evident from her performance that a glass ceiling may not be a thing for her after all.

While Madiha was doing exceptionally well at work, her parents thought that it was the apt time to get her married. She somehow managed to complete her education post-marriage while still working. She has been a girl fuelled with aspirations. She was raised in a time when multimedia endorsed educated and working women. She was raised in an environment where women empowerment was a debated issue. She has had her idols. All these factors have been determinantal in making her work as hard as she could.

In a couple of years post-marriage, Madiha got pregnant. In developing societies, traditions still weigh as significant influencing factors. In the case of Madiha as well, she was expected to conceive immediately after marriage. At the family level, her work or career growth bore no significance. Her professional hard work and position were not given any importance. Instead, she was under an invisible social pressure to conceive at the earliest, no matter what. She would hear women in the household talk about her and would be bothered by it all. Eventually, Madiha did conceive. Given the complications associated with her health, she could not attend the office. Despite being a senior and dedicated employee of the office, she was forced to quit the job. No consideration was given to the contribution that she had made to the organization during her tenure there. Not losing her heart and based on her profile, she decided to restart working once stable. Consequently, she started looking for work after a brief while. Given her academic qualifications and the quality and quantity of her academic merit, she was confident enough that she could find work very easily. However, all her aspirations got shattered when she found out that organizations were unwilling to offer her a job just because she was pregnant. Madiha ended up spending her whole pregnancy and postpartum unemployed at her home. There was no social security that she could claim from the government or any other organization. And just like that, a human capital asset, a talent, got wasted…

A woman who is well-trained to be a capable member of the wage economy is being restricted to the care economy. While the usual factors of limitation, like family support and skill set, are in her possession, it is the policy lacuna that is limiting her aspirations. Common belief has it that the family and society prevent females from entering the wage economy. Cases like these validate that the glass ceiling can be created by the very institution that aims to break it. An increasing number of women like Madiha can be seen in India. On the one hand, education and skilling are increasing but very much so on the other hand, societal systems are not able to update simultaneously. This has led to a growth in the phenomenon of pauperization of motherhood and the creation of the phenomenon of missing women from India’s labour force.

Case Study 2: Formal Academic Sector

Being on top of her class, Priya has been a topper in her academic pursuits right from class nursery to the end of her PhD. She comes from a middle-class family that sees merit in education. Her family always prioritized education and education-related endeavours over other things. Despite societal pressure, Priya’s parents never gave top priority to her marriage. They very much envisioned her safe future in academic pursuits. On the successful defence of her PhD, she and her family thought that it was liberation. But the after-events turned out harsher.

Despite innumerable attempts, Priya has been unable to find a permanent substantive academic position in either a local college or a university. Eventually, she ended up in an ad hoc position at a university. Serving the university in every possible manner she could, when applying for maternity leave, she was denied a chance. She was asked to resign or face termination. The vice chancellor of the university told her that (s)he hired her to run the academic session and is in no circumstances bothered by her personal requirements and needs. Having an H-index of 12 secured only in four years of academic presence, Priya was limited to the walls of her household. On resignation, the position was taken up by a male colleague with the same academic qualifications and a smaller H-index. The male faculty started serving the organization. Later on, he was given a chance to appear before the selection committee for a substantive position. He succeeded, mostly because he did not need a maternity leave, which he was not denied either.

Education, which has historically been one of the preferred jobs for women, is lately failing them. Even within this sector, which is expected to be welcoming for women, employment sustainability has been falling over time. In a situation where women are not able to find employment within various cohorts of the education system, other sectors practically become less and less accessible to the womenfolk. Higher education is losing women, and this is setting a negative example for the potential female academicians. More and more women, despite their excellent academic record and interest in further studies, end up not pursuing the same. Women find it very difficult to align their personal lives with academic pursuits. The educational and job policies in India lack the basic acknowledgement of the social and biological role that women hold close to their hearts. At the same time, for the roles and responsibilities like childbearing and postpartum childcare, there is no substitution available. Considering the exploitative labour practices in the Indian academic system, many women prefer not to risk their precious years serving the system and getting no decent remuneration and job security in return.

Case Study 3: Self-employed Informal Sector

Belonging to an average Indian household, Sandeep was married in the first year of her college. She was raised in a household where her grandparents had a vocal say. For her safety, they said it was essential to find her a good match as soon as possible. For the safety of the honour of their household, they did not find it right that she would finish college. University was out of scope and question. Resulting, she never got an opportunity to complete her college. There was limited exposure that came her way before she was married off to an unknown family with a different set of social set-ups.

Years after adjusting in her husband’s home, Sandip finally reached a point in time where her kid went off to school. She found that there was a lot of time that she had to herself. She was spending this free time either in front of the TV or scrolling through Instagram and social media. Over time, she also realized that she lacked any sort of economic independence. It came to her realization that in the absence of economic independence, she possessed no decision-making power as well. Thinking by herself, she was counting her skills. It occurred to her that she was really good at making pickles, but the question was, is it marketable? She had been raised in a set-up where domestic skills were given a very high importance. She had never considered the marketability aspect of her skills.

To check the slightest possibility of its marketability, she posted a picture on her Instagram handle about delivering her homemade pickle on order. Contrary to her expectations, she received some orders, and the number of orders kept on increasing geometrically day by day. She could actually see herself emancipating. The idea was turning into a marketable business. Her kitchen was becoming a cloud kitchen. Sky seemed the limit, and upscaling was the next move. She started by hiring one domestic help, and in the next six months from the day of her operations, she had hired four more people. Two helping in the kitchen and two going out to make deliveries. The money was simultaneously coming in. Diversification was being explored, and she was being approached by the local departmental stores as well.

It so occurred that she soon found out that she was expecting another child. This time around, her pregnancy turned out to be really tough. She could barely walk out of the bed. And her business steadily took a back seat. All of a sudden, her newly found financial independence seemed shaking. There was no social security, no government scheme that would actually come to her rescue. She was not able to dedicate much of her time to work. Over a few weeks, she could not keep the pickles going and had to lose her staff. And just like that, she lost what she had just started to build.

Inferences

The case studies analysed above have diverse backgrounds but the same end. It can be validated from the theoretic underpinning of the scarcity hypothesis and capability approach that the women in India are trying hard to move out from the care towards the wage economy. Using the Eisenhardt method, the case studies further validate the major limiting factor behind the sluggish growth of women employment in the wage economy. Weak maternity legislation and non-existent social security are the two main limiting factors in the case of India. The government needs to intervene, utilizing its own machinery and resources to cushion women and help them rise in the wage economy.

Conclusions and Policy Recommendations

The present study is an attempt to open up the debate and discussion pertaining to the absence of equity and equal opportunity for women in the labour market. This study in general concerns the need, necessity and weak legislations pertaining to maternity benefits from across the world and India in particular. The study brings forth the axiom that these legislations are significantly weak in India. To contextualize the realization further, the discussion is substantiated by case studies with different contexts but identical end results.

From the analysis of the present study, some imperative policy suggestions can be recommended. For a country like India, with the largest population in the world, the basic prerequisite of development is an equal participation of humans in its labour force. However, given the present level and application of legislation, an average Indian woman is discriminated against by her male counterpart solely based on her biological roles. There is no maternity security provided by the employer. There is no serious governmental intervention, safeguarding the rights of a working woman and securing her return to work postpartum. The whole debate around the research problem under discussion advocates the designing of an equitable policy. This policy can practically be translated into wage and monetary benefits for working ladies vis-à-vis their caring and maternity breaks.