Centre amends rules to allow six months maternity, child care leave for staff in case of surrogacy

Till now, there were no rules to grant maternity leaves to women government employees in case a child was born through surrogacy.

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The new rules

“In case of a child begotten through surrogacy, the commissioning father who is a male government servant with less than two surviving children may be granted paternity leave of 15 days within the period of 6 months from the date of delivery of the child,” the new rules said.

In case of surrogacy, the commissioning mother with less than two surviving children, may be granted child care leave, reads the Central Civil Services (Leave) (Amendment) Rules, 2024, notified on 18 June.

Existing rules allow “a female government servant and single male government servant” child care leave for a maximum period of 730 days during entire service “for taking care of two eldest surviving children, whether for rearing or for looking after any of their needs, such as education, sickness and the like”.

The “surrogate mother” shall mean the woman who bears the child on behalf of the commissioning mother and the expression “commissioning father” would mean the intending father of the child born through surrogacy, the Personnel Ministry clarified in the amended rules.

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