Paternity Leave (India)
A non-statutory leave benefit in India's private sector, with no central law mandating paternity leave for private employees, while central government employees receive 15 days of paid paternity leave under the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, and a growing number of progressive private companies voluntarily offer 5 to 30 days.
- What Is Paternity Leave in India?
- Paternity Leave for Government Employees
- Private-Sector Paternity Leave Practices
- Legislative Proposals for Mandatory Paternity Leave
- Cultural Factors Affecting Paternity Leave in India
- Paternity Leave for Adoption and Surrogacy
- India Paternity Leave Statistics [2026]
- Building a Paternity Leave Policy for Indian Companies
- Frequently Asked Questions About Paternity Leave in India
What Is Paternity Leave in India?
Key Takeaways
- ✓India has no central legislation mandating paternity leave for private-sector employees. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, which extended maternity leave to 26 weeks, didn't include any paternity leave provisions.
- ✓Central government employees get 15 days of paid paternity leave under the Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, limited to two children during their entire career.
- ✓State government employees have varying entitlements: some states offer 5 to 15 days, while others offer nothing.
- ✓In the private sector, paternity leave depends entirely on company policy. Industry leaders like Zomato (26 weeks), Flipkart (10 days), and Tata Group (various policies) have set benchmarks voluntarily.
- ✓Multiple private member bills proposing mandatory paternity leave have been introduced in Parliament, but none have passed as of 2024.
India's paternity leave situation is a study in contrasts. On one side, the country gave mothers 26 weeks of paid maternity leave in 2017, one of the most generous mandates in the world. On the other side, it offers fathers exactly zero days of legally mandated leave in the private sector. This gap isn't an oversight. It reflects deeply rooted cultural assumptions about caregiving roles that India's lawmakers haven't yet chosen to challenge. For central government employees, the picture is slightly better. The Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules provide 15 days of paid paternity leave, but with a catch: you can only use it twice in your career. A third child? No leave. And the leave must be taken within 6 months of the child's birth. It can't be saved or carried forward. State government employees face a patchwork of rules depending on which state they serve. The private sector, meanwhile, is self-regulating. And it's doing so unevenly. Tech companies and startups tend to offer better paternity leave. Manufacturing, retail, and traditional industries often offer nothing beyond whatever casual or privilege leave the employee has banked. The lack of a mandate means there's enormous variation within the same industry, same city, even the same office park.
Paternity Leave for Government Employees
The rules for government employees are specific and well-defined, though limited.
| Parameter | Central Government | State Government (varies) |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | 15 days | 5 to 15 days depending on state |
| Pay | 100% of salary | 100% in most states |
| Lifetime limit | 2 times (for first 2 children only) | Varies by state |
| Timing | Within 6 months of birth/adoption | Varies; typically within 1-3 months |
| Governing rule | CCS (Leave) Rules, 1972 (Rule 43-A) | Respective state service rules |
| Applies to | All central government employees | State government employees only |
| Adoption | Included (for child under 1 year) | Some states include, some don't |
Private-Sector Paternity Leave Practices
Without a legal mandate, private companies set their own rules. Here's the spectrum.
Industry leaders
Some Indian companies have set global benchmarks for paternity leave. Zomato offers 26 weeks (matching their maternity leave). Meesho provides 30 days. Razorpay offers 30 days. HDFC Bank provides 2 weeks. Accenture India offers 8 weeks. Deloitte India offers 5 days. Wipro provides 8 weeks of primary caregiver leave regardless of gender. These policies are often announced with significant media coverage, and they've become a competitive differentiator in India's tight tech talent market.
The majority: 0 to 5 days
For every Zomato headline, thousands of Indian companies offer no paternity leave at all. Mid-sized and traditional businesses typically offer 0 to 5 days, often disguised as 'special leave' or carved from casual leave. In many organizations, fathers use their earned leave or casual leave for the birth period and return within a week. The cultural expectation in much of corporate India is still that fathers don't need significant time off for childbirth.
IT sector trends
The IT and tech sector leads on paternity leave, driven by global client expectations and competition for talent. TCS, Infosys, and HCL offer 5 to 7 days. Startups and product companies tend to be more generous: 10 to 30 days is increasingly common. The distinction between 'IT services' and 'tech product' companies matters. Service companies tend to follow conservative policies. Product companies and startups, competing directly with global firms, offer more.
Legislative Proposals for Mandatory Paternity Leave
Several attempts have been made to bring private-sector paternity leave into law.
The Paternity Benefit Bill
Private member bills proposing 15 to 30 days of mandatory paternity leave have been introduced in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha on multiple occasions. The most notable was Rajeev Satav's Paternity Benefit Bill in 2017, which proposed 15 days of paid paternity leave for all male employees in establishments with 10 or more workers. The bill was not taken up for discussion. Similar bills have been introduced since, but none have progressed to a committee stage.
Why it hasn't passed
The primary resistance comes from concerns about the cost burden on small and medium businesses (which employ the majority of India's formal workforce). The government's position has been that the Maternity Benefit Act already places a significant financial burden on employers, and adding a paternity mandate could discourage hiring of young married men or push more employment into the informal sector. Critics argue this logic is flawed, given that the proposed duration is only 15 days, but it has been sufficient to prevent progress.
Cultural Factors Affecting Paternity Leave in India
India's paternity leave gap isn't just a legal issue. It's deeply tied to cultural norms around family, gender roles, and work.
Joint family dynamics
In many Indian families, the extended family (grandparents, aunts, in-laws) provides childcare support, reducing the perceived need for the father to take time off. When the mother's parents or in-laws are available, companies and employees alike view paternity leave as less necessary. This is changing in urban nuclear families, but joint family caregiving remains a significant factor in how paternity leave is perceived across the country.
The 'breadwinner' expectation
Traditional gender norms in India still strongly associate the father's role with earning rather than caregiving. Taking extended time off for a newborn can be seen as a sign that the father isn't committed to his career. In client-facing industries like consulting, banking, and IT services, fathers who take more than a few days off sometimes face informal pushback from managers. This stigma is gradually weakening in urban centres and progressive companies, but it remains a real barrier in most workplaces.
Paternity Leave for Adoption and Surrogacy
The rules for non-biological parenthood add another layer of complexity.
Central government adoption leave
Under the CCS Rules, a male central government employee can take 15 days of paternity leave when adopting a child under the age of one year. The same two-time lifetime limit applies. A single male parent adopting a child is entitled to child care leave under separate provisions, but this is different from paternity leave in duration and terms.
Private sector: surrogacy and commissioning parents
The Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021, and the Assisted Reproductive Technology (Regulation) Act, 2021, don't include any leave provisions for commissioning parents. Whether a father who has a child through surrogacy gets leave depends entirely on company policy. Progressive companies like Flipkart and Google India extend their parental leave policies to cover surrogacy. Most others don't address it explicitly, leaving HR teams to make ad hoc decisions.
India Paternity Leave Statistics [2026]
Available data on paternity leave practices and attitudes in India.
Building a Paternity Leave Policy for Indian Companies
For HR teams creating or updating a paternity leave policy in the absence of legal requirements, here are practical guidelines.
- Start with at least 10 working days of paid paternity leave. This is below the government standard but above the private-sector average and sends a clear signal.
- Make the policy gender-neutral where possible. Use 'primary caregiver' and 'secondary caregiver' instead of 'maternity' and 'paternity' to cover all family structures.
- Allow the leave to be taken flexibly within 6 months of the birth or adoption. Rigid windows reduce usage.
- Don't cap it at two children. The government rule was written decades ago and doesn't reflect modern family planning realities.
- Cover adoption and surrogacy explicitly. Don't leave these cases to ad hoc decisions.
- Track take-up rates and address low uptake directly. If only 20% of eligible fathers take leave, there's a cultural barrier that needs management attention.
- Publicize the policy internally. Many Indian employees don't know their company offers paternity leave because it's buried in the leave policy document nobody reads.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is there any law that gives private-sector fathers paternity leave in India?
Can a father use his earned leave or casual leave for paternity purposes?
Do foreign companies operating in India have to follow Indian rules on paternity leave?
What's the difference between paternity leave and parental leave in the Indian context?
Can a father take leave for child care beyond the birth period?
Written by Adithyan RK