Centre Allows 6 Months Maternity Leave To Women In Case Of Surrogacy

New Delhi: Announcing amendments to a 50-year-old rule, the Centre has said that women government employees can take 180 days of maternity leave in case they have children through surrogacy. It 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”, according to the changes made,e in the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, PTI reported.

“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,” read the amended rules notified by the Personnel Ministry.

Till now, there were no rules to grant maternity leaves to women government employees in case a child was born through surrogacy. “In case of a child begotten through surrogacy, the commissioning father who is a male government servant with less than two surviving children may be granted paternity leave of 15 days within 6 months from the date of delivery of the child,” the new rules said.