Airlines Must Give Paternity Leave, Raise Women Pilots Strength to 50%: Scindia

The Civil Aviation Minister said that the strength of women pilots should be increased from 15% to 50%.

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, on Wednesday, 16 March, urged all Indian airlines to consider providing paternity leaves to male employees so that they too can share the responsibility of raising a child.

Speaking at an event organised by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), in association with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) and Women in Aviation, a non-profit organisation, he also said that the strength of women pilots working in the airlines should be increased from 15 percent to 50 percent.

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In 2017, India had passed the Maternity (Amendment) Bill that said that women on maternity leave should be paid for 26 weeks as against 12 weeks, which was the norm earlier. Although all Indian airlines give paid maternity leave as per this law, there is no policy for men to avail paternity leaves.

"I believe that our airlines are doing a tremendous job in terms of creating a healthy workplace environment for our women, whether it is creches, maternity leave and other structures. But I think we need to move beyond that," Scindia said while speaking at the event.

"We have to create an environment which is not just gender neutral but which ensures that both men and women share equal responsibility while raising their children," he said, adding, "A case in point is why do we look at the concept of only maternity leave? We must also look at the concept of paternity leave where men must also partake in the responsibility of bringing up children at home."

"The need of the hour is to establish equity more than equality for women at workplaces, with men partaking in responsibilities at work, as well as at home," Scindia tweeted attaching the video of his speech at the event.

The need of the hour is to establish equity more than equality for women at workplaces, with men partaking in responsibilities at work, as well as at home. #WomenInAviation @MoCA_GoI @ficci_india https://t.co/iTwJ0HX2LF pic.twitter.com/jHHgsgMSyH

— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) March 16, 2022

Commenting about the strength of women pilots in the country, Scindia said the current strength of 15 percent was not good enough. A day must come when the 15 percent strength reaches 50 percent, he said.

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(With inputs from PTI.)