Paternity Leave For Virat Kohli
By our team of in-house writers.
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First publised on 2020-11-20 16:05:16
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By our team of in-house writers.
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People are talking about Virat Kohli and the paternity leave granted to him by the BCCI. Kohli will come back from Australia after the first Test, to be with wife Anushkha at the time when she will deliver their first baby. While this is a cute gesture on part of the Indian skipper and shows how responsible he is towards parenting and sharing the joy of having a baby with his wife, people say this marks a first in India and shows how the Indian society is changing fast and for the better.
People say that maternity leave is commonplace, with even the government now pitching in, for working women to keep their jobs even as they deliver a baby and look after it for some months. But, they say, paternity leave, though common in many countries, is scoffed at in a patriarchal society like India where women are traditionally required to look after such 'mundane' things by themselves. Men traditionally find these things womanly and are loathe contributing or sharing the pain and the joy. Society still looks down upon men who help their wives with parenting or household chores. But, at least in the metros and some smaller towns, single families find the going tough in the face of paucity of house helps and men are increasingly helping out at home. People say that the lockdown has seen even CEOs doing the dishwashing and mopping the floor.
But things are changing as the Kohli decision shows, men are approaching their employers for such leave and the employers are granting it. It remains to be seen whether the government makes it mandatory for men to get paid paternity leave on application, for when the issue was raised in the past, it was rejected out rightly. People say that if some men have actually become responsible towards parenting, they will not mind taking paternity leave even if it is unpaid. That will set a trend and then the companies, MNCs at first and later Indian companies and maybe even the government will start thinking of providing paid paternity leave to their employees.
