Paid maternity leave for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan teachers increased to 26 weeks

All the female teachers working under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (now Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan-SMSA) will be granted 26 weeks or 182 days of paid maternity leave as opposed to 12 weeks or 84 days that they were getting earlier.

The decision was taken in the 20th meeting of the executive committee of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Society held on May 20, and was endorsed and issued on Tuesday.

“It was a long-awaited decision. We were pursuing this matter with the secretary, personnel; secretary, education; and director, school education, Chandigarh, since April 2017,” said Arvind Rana, president, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan Teachers’ Welfare Association (SSATWA), Chandigarh.

The order will cover all teachers under SSA, SMSA and Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyhan (RMSA) with effect from April 1, 2017.

This means all teachers who took any leave over and above the earlier granted 84 days and till 182 days, will also be compensated accordingly with effect from April 1, 2017. Almost 40 female SSA teachers are set to benefit from the order being implemented, retrospectively.

Approximately 750 teachers work under SSA, and 500 of them are females. Other government school teachers are already availing of the benefit.

SSA teachers were granted unpaid maternity leave for 84 days till 2008. After SSATWA invoked the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, and made a case with the SSA Society, provision was made for 84 days of paid leave from 2009.

After the central government revised the Maternity Benefit Act in March 2017, increasing the number of maternity leave days from 84 to 182, SSATWA demanded the increase for teachers that work on contractual basis.

The demand reached the SSA Society, chaired by Chandigarh education secretary BL Sharma three months back, after it was endorsed by the personnel department. The decision was finally taken up in a meeting of the society in May.