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'A child is a child - biological or adopted' - families welcome SC's decision
Adoption leave in India: 'A child is a child - biological or adopted' - families welcome Supreme Court's decision
The Supreme Court of India has ruled that irrespective of the age of the child, an adoptive mother is eligible for 12 weeks of maternity leave. Earlier, this was only allowed for adoptive moms whose child was less than 3 months at the time of adoption.
Adoptive mothers in India have for a long time faced discrimination when it came to maternity leave. As per the law, only mothers whose babies were below three months at the time of adoption were mandatorily given 12 weeks of maternity leave. This has always been a grouse with adoptive families and on Tuesday, the Supreme Court came up with a landmark ruling. On March 17, the Supreme Court ruled that Section 60(4) of the Code on Social Security, 2020, that allowed adoptive mothers to avail 12 weeks' maternity leave only if the adopted child was below three-months of age is unconstitutional and violative of the Right to Equality.
The Court had noted that the earlier provision fails to account for the significant emotional, psychological and practical adjustments that accompany adoption, irrespective of the child's age. "For all the foregoing reasons, we have concluded that Section 60(4) of the 2020 Code, in so far as it puts an age limit of three months on the age of the adoptive child, for the adoptive mothers to avail maternity benefit under the 2020 Code, is violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution respectively. Therefore, the sub-section (4) of Section 60 of the 2020 Code should now be meaningfully read as:-'(4) A woman who legally adopts a child or a commissioning mother shall be entitled to maternity benefit for a period of twelve weeks from the date the child is handed over to the adopting mother or the commissioning mother, as the case may be", the Court noted in the judgement.
Following the much-needed change, Zee News Digital spoke to some adoptive moms for their reactions on the judgement and share the difficulties they had faced earlier.
Ishani Bhatt (name changed), a media professional from Delhi, adopted a baby girl in 2024. When her daughter came home, she was five-and-half months. "Since she was above the (then) mandated age limit of 3 months, my company did not make provision for paid maternity leave." Ishani admitted that while her manager and the HR was empathetic, no concrete action was taken to ensure maternity leave was available for her. "My HR personnel asked me to use up my earned leaves and I had around 40 of those back then. But I was reluctant to use up all of those at one go, because what if I needed leaves later for the baby? Finally, they allowed me work from home for three-four months, and hybrid for another six months, and that is how I managed."
But Ishani adds that she and her husband had her parents and a full-time nanny. "A nanny doesn't come cheap and not everyone can afford them. Sometimes, even if you can afford, logistics won't allow. Also it is not necessary that every couple can have parents staying with them to look after their child. I would not have been able to manage even work from home without this support system. I welcome Supreme Court's decision and this was long due. A child is a child, biological or adopted."
Sravanthi, a mother of a 9-year-old and 2-year-old from Pune, adopted her second child when they were 3.5 months old. Sharing her insights, Sravanthi said, "I think adoptive parents actually often need more time to adjust to a new baby. The bonding that happens in the uterus, the time spent in the children's home is the time the child missed spending with their forever family."
Working in a private multi-national company, that is into data and storage, Sravanthi wrote that she had urged her HR to rethink the existing policy even as courts debated the move. "I had made up my mind to go on leave without pay. But fortunately, with a bit of folllow-ups during the duration of my leave, I was able to get the policy changed to ignore the below three months age limitation and avail 12 weeks of time off from work." She adds, "A mother is a mother - biological or adopted. The time to bond and nurture the newest family member, whatever age they may be, must take precedence and should not discriminate in any fashion."
A clinical research professional from Mumbai shares, "I am working in a multinational company who is following India maternity policy based on the maternity act. Last year , we brought our daughter home in May 2025. I initiated conversation with my manager in March 2025 and told her about the adoption, how process works and how there might be a chance that i might get a baby older than 3 months. She was considerate about it, even initiated discussion with HR about it. When I asked about what type of leave they can offer me if baby is older than 3 months, they dodged the discussion stating that we will look into it once you receive referral."
Luckily for her, her child was 2.5 months when we got her referral. "I got plain lucky. I informed my manager immediately and started the leave before my daughter turned 3 months, which was 2 weeks before we brought her home. I wanted to avoid the technical rejection on my leave application - they might have said daughter is older than 3 months."
With Supreme Court's decision, the long-pending demand of adoptive families have finally been addressed. However, some point out that this just the first step and they are looking forward to the day when all mothers get 180 days of leave like bilogical moms, irrespective of the child's age.
Source: ZeeNews
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