Bhubaneswar, 27 Sept

The Odisha government has decided to grant maternity and paternity leaves to employees opting for surrogacy, an official notification said.

According to the notification issued by the state Finance Department on Thursday night, female employees can avail of 180 days of leave while male staffers will be entitled to 15 days of paternity leave.

This benefit has been extended to both surrogate and commissioning mothers and the commissioning father, it said.

The State government's decision in this regard came after the Centre extended maternity and paternity leave benefits to its employees attaining parenthood by surrogacy.

A state government female employee, having less than two surviving children, who becomes a surrogate mother, will be eligible for maternity leave of 180 days, it said.

A state government female employee, having less than two surviving children, who becomes a 'commissioning mother', will 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 woman.

Similarly, a state government male employee, having less than two surviving children, who becomes a 'commissioning father' will 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. If both the surrogate mother and the commissioning mother are state government employees, both will be eligible for 180 days of maternity leave each. Agreement on surrogacy made between surrogate mother and commissioning parents along with supporting medical documents from registered doctors or hospitals have to be produced for claiming maternity or paternity leave, the notification added.