A study on the impact of maternity benefit on teacher’s career and increase in post maternity attrition rate in India

Abstract

India will never put poverty in a museum unless they increase the participation of women in the work force. The purpose of the study is to observe the impact level of Maternity law in India, on womenteachers’ employment. This research is based on the survey conducted with the help of questionnaires that were asked to 206 school teachers (women). The objective of the study is to find the level of management support, what kind of maternity benefits are provided, and the prevailing gender discrimination and termination due to maternity relief. The survey found that more than 82% of those interviewed who are working under the organization had encountered a situation where an employer is forcing to take a sick-leave or break which in turn is a kind of covered terminating where the female teachers are facing on account of their pregnancy. It is also found that the womenin the working experience of 2-5 years are mostly affected.  In addition, female employees who benefit from this maternity relief are not able to re-join due to the lack of Work-Life balance provisions provided by the management. The study finds that Management forces their female employees to re-join after their maternity period. But most woman are not returning into the work force category after the prolonged maternity leave. Due to gender pay gap and gender discrimination their participation in the National economy also drops. The work-life balance is still not under legal provisions and it should be incorporated in the policies to increase gender equality at work.