In 2015, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) had instructed all Central ministries and departments to implement an order of the Delhi High Court for granting maternity leave to female employees who choose to have a child by commissioning a surrogacy. Such leave would include both the pre-natal and post-natal period.

The amendment in Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 aiming to double the maternity leave for women employees get sanctioned last year. This pro-women proposal raised the maternity leave timeframe from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. Also, Commissioning mothers who use surrogates to bear their child and adopting mothers get entitlement for 12 weeks of maternity leave.

 In an attempt to support the advancement of their women employees, as well as creating an atmosphere of understanding and upliftment, Cushman & Wakefield, has introduced a six-month surrogacy leave.  

According to the policy, Cushman & Wakefield will offer six months of leave with pay, Employees availing surrogacy leave shall be entitled to the proportionate privilege leave for the period of their surrogacy leave. The policy applies to employees who have worked for at least 80 days in the twelve months immediately preceding the date the child is handed over to the commissioning mother in a surrogacy arrangement.

Deepali Bhardwaj, Executive Director- Human Resources, Cushman & Wakefield India, shares with People Matters, “Cushman & Wakefield is blessed with some of the best minds from the Indian Real Estate space, and to be What’s Next for our people and clients, our company policies should be close to being not just people-centric, but also future-ready. As an organization culture, we care that we are talent magnet not only because of the business that we do but also because of our people practice. True to our Endeavor of pioneering tomorrow’s practices, we have introduced our Surrogacy Leave policy that would create the wave of change in the industry. Surrogacy is a topic that will soon gain dominance in the foray of HR, and while many have been waffling on its impact, we have moved ahead to bridge the gulf between principle and practice."