Parliament proposes to extend maternity leave to 6 months

Kathmandu. A proposal of urgent public importance registered in the parliament to extend maternity leave to 6 months will benefit everyone from the mother who beats the gravel to the government job.

Lawmaker Sita (Urmila) Thapaliya said at a discussion programme on safe motherhood organized by Women, Law and Development Forum (FWLD).

She urged the government to look at the proposal of public importance registered in the parliament by linking it with the production of healthy citizens and human rights.

She urged to take the proposal positively as it is related to the health of the general public.

“This has been started, we should move ahead by discussing its impractical aspects,” Thapaliya said, adding, “This proposal has not been brought on any hesitation, it is a matter that has been debated and investigated for a long time, the parliament should give it a legal shape.” ’

Lawmaker Saraswati Lama, who supported the proposal, said that the proposal was registered in the parliament after 6 months of effort. She said that all the lawmakers are in favor of this proposal and it will soon take the form of law. She said that such discussions will be useful to make this proposal more sophisticated and relevant. MP Lama also said that some men do not understand the problems of women, it is necessary to make them understand.

Women constitute 51.2 percent of Nepal’s population. There are 8.7 million women in the age group of 15-59 years and about 5 million women in the age group of 20-40 years. Even though 30 percent of women are in the civil service, 27 percent in teachers, 55 percent in health, 25-30 in banking and 18 percent in garments, many sisters have shunned from becoming mothers due to the thinking that it is the mother’s job to have a child. The proposal states that this proposal had to be brought because the constitution gave rights but it was not implemented.