Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The Odisha government has made the decision to provide benefits for maternity and paternity leave to its workers who become parents through surrogacy.
“…. the State Government is now pleased to extend maternity leave and paternity leave benefit to State Government employees, attaining parenthood by surrogacy, as i) 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 clause (iii) of Section 4 of the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021.] ii) 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.] iii) 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.],” read a office memorandum issued by the Finance Department on Thursday.
Notably, the memorandum also said that both the commissioning mother and the surrogate mother, who were previously mentioned as workers of the State Government, would be eligible for 180 days of maternity leave each. The memorandum further said that in order to claim maternity or paternity leave, the surrogate mother’s and the commissioning parents’ agreement on surrogacy as well as any supporting medical records from licensed physicians or hospitals must be submitted.
