Not just Alia Bhatt, most working women get pigeonholed once they are pregnant

The moment a woman gets pregnant, discrimination kicks in, with colleagues and with employers pigeonholing her as distracted and uncommitted to her job because she is having a baby.

In a recent interview with Firstpost, Alia Bhatt said, “There is no change which is as big and beautiful as motherhood. In my opinion, nothing must change in my professional life. What will change is that after work, I may not hang around and party with my friends. Right after work, I would like to rush back home to spend time with my family.”

Actress Alia Bhatt was filming in London for her first Hollywood movie, Heart of Stone, when she made the pregnancy announcement. Soon after, the Darlings actor became irritated by rumours that her husband, actor Ranbir Kapoor, would “bring her up” from London following her shoot. Alia recently spoke out about the rumours, claiming that the experience caused the “feminist inside” of her to awaken.

Alia took to social media to react to these reports. She said, “The only reason I reacted was that it was going for a hard-core commentary and the feminist inside me woke up with all the knives and guns blazing.” and “Meanwhile in some people’s heads we still live in some patriarchal world.” It further read, “Nothing has gotten delayed!! No one needs to PICK anyone up. I am a woman, not a parcel!!! I do not need to REST at all but good to know you’ll have a doctor’s certification as well.”

Side-lining or pigeon holing a pregnant woman

 Not just Alia or other actresses, most working women are judged whether she will be able to do justice to her job once she becomes pregnant. Sometimes they are even unceremoniously removed from senior positions. Mumbai based Advocate Abha Singh says, “The explicit bias in the workplace against women and people with wombs who are pregnant is a longstanding fact and something we’ve largely been expected to put up with. A lot of apprehensions and dilemmas have led to many women employees losing out on their rightful share. Some women employees even quit jobs as critical health does not allow them to continue working during the pregnancy period.”

While it’s illegal for an employer to fire someone for being pregnant, Advocate Abha Singh says, “I have heard of women being held back from top assignments, not getting deserved promotions or raises, or worse, being demoted as soon as they return from maternity leave, but when managed correctly, pregnancy doesn’t have to signal the end of a woman’s career.”

Motherhood is a sharp knife that cuts clear and straight and lays bare the fat and the lean. It creates but it should not destroy. Neither a woman’s identity, nor her dreams and aspirations. Feminist writer Meghna Pant says, “When I announced my first pregnancy in 2017, I was told that I should prepare to be out of commission for at least five years. But I believe that women should not have to abide by patriarchal stereotypes and gender notions that reduce their effort, hard work and talent.”

Therefore, Meghna pushed herself in a way that she had never before, and made her motherhood give me wings. She worked really hard. Through the rigors of pregnancy and being a first-time nervous mother, despite the guilt, she kept working. She published five books with India’s top publishers, won big awards, wrote hundreds of articles, hosted three online shows and an Audible podcast. She even signed film deals for her books and also became a screenwriter.

Filmmaker Tahira Kashyap says, “I don’t know where this assumption comes from, but perhaps from the perspective of not being compassionate enough to give a supporting environment to a working mother. Instead of giving up on her, enable her to get paid maternity leaves, have crèches in the organisation and be compassionate about her nurturing another being while giving her best at work. At home front too having idiotic expectations and giving her the tag of being a multitasker is a way of covering up your own complacency. Instead do away with the tag and take ownership of being a partner or a supporting family.”

If the entire onus of running a home, bringing up a kid and working at an office falls on the woman obviously she’ll succumb somewhere. Tahira further explains if she ever falls short of some expectations the weird part is it’s always expected she’ll leave work. “Obviously she can’t leave her child or her home else she wouldn’t be a good mother to begin with’ I think society needs to realign this very thought process. Stop treating women like superheroes because I don’t think we want to become one. We want to be able to do things we love and since we aren’t a prototype of one another it’s ok for a mom to choose her career over other aspects of life.”

The law for maternity leave

Advocate Abha Singh explains that in order to protect the rights of women employees during pregnancy and after childbirth, Indian law makes it mandatory for most establishments to offer maternity benefits to women employees. Maternity benefit in India is mainly governed by the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 which applies to all shops and establishments with 10 or more employees.

The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017, which was passed by the Rajya Sabha in the year August 2016, has now also been approved by the Lok Sabha in the same year, March 2017. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act 2017, which was passed by the Rajya Sabha in the year August 2016, has now also been approved by the Lok Sabha in the same year, March 2017.

India is a developing country, and our first Maternity leave Act was established back in 1961 called, The Maternity leave Benefit Act 1961. This Act ensured women employees get a paid leave of 12 weeks post-delivery for taking care of the newborn. This Act applied to establishments with ten plus employees. The Act applies to every women employee on a contract, permanent basis, or engaged with agencies.

The Maternity (Amendment) Bill 2017 has extended the earlier 12 weeks’ leave to 26 weeks. The pregnant employee can bifurcate the leave as post and pre-delivery. 8 weeks of leave can opt before the delivery and remaining post-childbirth. For women expecting a third child, the maternity leave allotted is 12 weeks.

The law also allows employers to permit women employees to work from home in addition to the maternity benefit period if the nature of work allows that. The law was further amended in 2017 to make it mandatory for establishments with more than 50 workers to establish crèches. Mothers are entitled to visit the crèches up to four times a day and to two nursing breaks per day in addition to any other breaks that are available as a matter of course until the child attains the age of 15 months.

It is high time people understood that instead of being judgemental that both motherhood and career can be managed with a little balance in the life and career goals along with family goals.

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