Odisha Govt Extends Maternity Leave For Women Employees In Aided Colleges

Bhubaneswar: The state government has extended the maternity leave for women employees in aided colleges to 180 days.

A notification of the Higher Education Department, released on Tuesday, said the government has extended maternity leave benefit from 90 days to 180 days for eligible women employees of aided colleges under the department. However, a woman with two or more children is entitled to 90 days’ maternity leave.

The Lok Sabha had passed the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act in March 2017, raising the maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. The prenatal leave was also extended from six to eight weeks. But, in case of couple having two or more children, the prenatal leave remained six weeks.

Before the amendment of the Act, female workers were entitled to a maximum of 84 days of maternity leave.