A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan said: “Historically, society has placed the responsibility of care and nurturance almost exclusively on the mother. While the role of the mother is undoubtedly crucial to the emotional, physical and psychological development of the child, it would be incomplete and unjust to ignore the equally important role of the father.” The court said society has normalized an unintentional injustice.
The Supreme Court, while making these recommendations, struck down a provision of the Social Security Act that prohibited women who have adopted a child of more than three months from taking maternity leave. The report said fathers’ absence from their children’s upbringing due to work constraints deprives them of early opportunities for intimacy and recommended enacting a law on paternity leave under the CCS (Leave) Rules, which gives male government servants 15 days of paternity leave on the birth or adoption of a child.
“Parenthood is not a duty performed by one parent alone, but a shared responsibility, with both parents contributing to the overall development of the child. Although the father is present on the fringes of infancy, he is not present in the intimate and irreplaceable way that society has always considered the mother to be. This acceptance of absence rarely receives the serious scrutiny it deserves. As a result, these costs are borne silently by children who grew up never realizing what they lacked and by fathers who were forced by circumstances to keep their distance. At the same time, mothers are deprived of the companionship and support of their partners in the early stages of care,” the report said.
The court said the lack of paternity leave reinforced gender roles in parenting and denied meaningful opportunities for willing fathers to contribute.
“When fathers are given the opportunity to take leave after the birth of their child, they are able to support the mother and share family responsibilities. … We urge the government to enact regulations recognizing paternity leave as a social security benefit. The duration of such leave must be determined in a way that accommodates the needs of both parent and child,” it said.