Bhubaneswar: In a major decision Odisha government today announced to give maternity leave and paternity leaves to state government employees in case of surrogacy.As per a notification issued by the Finance Department, a maternity leave of 180 days to female Government employees and paternity leave of 15 days to male Government employees have been extended by the State Government.“Proposal for grant of maternity and paternity leave to State Government employees in case of attainment of parenthood by surrogacy has been under active consideration of State Government for some time past,” read notification.“Government of India, have extended maternity leave and paternity leave benefits to Central Government employees attaining parenthood by surrogacy. In view of this, the State Government extended maternity leave and paternity leave benefits to State Government employees, attaining parenthood by surrogacy,” it added.In view of this, the State Government is now pleased to extend the maternity leave and paternity leave benefit to State government employees, attaining parenthood by surrogacy, as given bellow;
- A State Government female employee, having less than two surviving children, who becomes a ‘Surrogate Mother’ shall be eligible for maternity leave of 180 days. (‘Surrogate Mother’ means a woman who agrees to bear a child (who is genetically related to the intending couple or intending woman) through, surrogacy from the implantation of embryo in her womb and fulfils the conditions as provided in sub-clause (b) of the clause (iii) of Section 4 of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021.)
- A State Government female employee, having less than two surviving children, who becomes a ‘Commissioning Mother’ shall be eligible for maternity leave of 180 days. (‘Commissioning mother’ means a biological mother who uses her egg to create an embryo implanted in any other women.)
- A State Government male employee, having less than two surviving children, who becomes a ‘Commissioning Father’ shall be eligible for paternity leave of 15 days within the period of 6 months from the date of delivery of the child. (‘Commissioning Father’ means biological father of the child born through surrogacy)
Note-a: If both the Surrogate Mother and the Commissioning Mother, as mentioned above, are State Government employees, both will be eligible for 180 days of maternity leave each.Note-b: Agreement on surrogacy made between Surrogate mother and Commissioning parents along with supporting medical documents from Registered Doctors/Hospitals shall be produced for claiming maternity/paternity leave. This shall come into effect from the date of issue of this Office Memorandum.