There’s an episode of Koffee with Karan with ShahRukh and Farah Khan, possibly in its Season 2. Farah Khan is expecting her triplets soon and during a light banter, ShahRukh tells her that “You will need to take care of kids once they are born. The duty just doesn’t stop after delivery.” They all laugh about it and that comment doesn’t get a mention anywhere again. Except in my mind.
There are such statements that remain with you, get video-taped/audio taped in your mind and just keep lying somewhere there in your CPU, to flash back when a related scenario occurs.
Marissa Mayer, CEO of Yahoo, recently announced that she is expecting her baby in December. However, what she also announced was that she would resume back work after 14 days of leave. That’s almost similar to what she did when she had her first child.
And I remember what ShahRukh had told Farah.
So what’s wrong? Or rather what’s right?
Here is a lady, a career woman, a successful career woman, one of the few women leaders across the globe, who says she doesn’t need a maternity leave and as soon as she is done delivering the baby, she would be back at work, delivering her job.
And here are thousands or millions of women like me, who enthusiastically share/like articles and posts which says Indian Government may increase the maternity leave to 8 months!
These 2 contrasting views of the same gender doesn’t get out of my mind. And while drafting the revised maternity policy for my organization, I keep thinking- what’d the ideal way to do this? There was a logic why Government had mandated 3 months of leave till now and there is a logic why it needs to move up now.
Leaving the mother in me aside for a while, I ask myself a question- how much time I would ideally need to bounce back to work? Assuming that the baby is well taken care of, and my body is shaping up well, what’s the minimum time required by me to start concentrating back at work?
I cross the congested Delhi roads and see the ladies carrying their infants and working on construction sites. I recall the elderly ladies of my house who got back to doing home stuff soon after their deliveries. Is it about survival? They need to work, else who else would do it? Definitely it’s not about survival in Marissa’s case or it could be if this article is true- Is Marissa Mayer finished at Yahoo?
So I answer my first question, provided my body and baby are in good shape, I can join back work soon, definitely sooner than 3 months.
This prompts the second question in my mind. If physically everything is alright, then how does the emotional balances work out? If it is a play of mother’s emotional guilt and emotional well-being of the baby, then can I ever put a number to it? After 3/6/8 months the emotions get weaker? Does a mother ever stop feeling guilty for leaving her child at home- no matter what the age of the child is?
As a mother, I love the idea of spending as much time as I can get with my new born and as an employee I would use these perks without an iota of guilt. As a policy maker, while I continue to follow and practice what the most loved duration of maternity leaves would be, as an employer I really want to ask all the women around- Do you really need it? All of you? Every single one of you? And if there is even a single Marissa out there- whose baby and body are in perfect shape, then would you ever, EVER, reduce your maternity leave benefit and join back work?
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