Indian mothers take 130 days' parental leave, fathers 7, Deel study finds

A study by the payroll and HR company Deel, reported on October 21, 2026, found that working mothers in India take a median of 130 working days of parental leave while fathers take just 7, the second-widest gap among the 12 countries it compared. The analysis of 7,285 parents in 97 countries from 2021 to 2026, led by Deel economist Lauren Thomas, also found that across the 12 countries 30% of mothers and 23% of fathers had left their jobs within six months of returning from leave.

The study measures what parents actually take, not what the law or a company policy offers. That distinction matters, because the report's central finding is that generous leave on paper does not by itself make the care of a new baby a shared job. Even when the researchers compared parents with similar jobs, pay and entitlements, fathers still took about 16 weeks less than mothers.

The Indian figures follow the law closely. Mothers' median of 130 working days matches the 26 weeks of paid maternity leave guaranteed for the first two children under the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017. For fathers there is no central law giving private-sector employees paternity leave, and many companies offer between five and fifteen days, so a median of 7 days sits at the lower end of that range. In practice, the first months of a child's life in Indian working families fall almost entirely on the mother.

The job-exit numbers show the cost. A quarter of Indian mothers in the data had left their job within six months of coming back. That can mean a career break, a switch to a more flexible employer or leaving paid work altogether, and each choice can affect pay and promotion for years. Fathers are not untouched: one in five Indian fathers in the data also moved on within six months, a reminder that a new child reshapes both parents' working lives.

The findings feed directly into a debate about family roles. Families that want to share care more evenly face a system in which the mother's leave is long and protected and the father's is short and voluntary. Some countries have tried to change this by reserving leave for fathers or rewarding couples who share it. The study suggests that such design choices, and workplace culture, matter as much as the number of days on offer.

Short-term: the figures give employers in India a benchmark for how little paternity leave fathers actually take, and may prompt HR teams to look at why returning mothers leave within six months.

Long-term: if more firms offer and encourage longer paternity leave and better support on return, the share of mothers who leave work after a baby could fall, helping to keep women in the workforce.

Who is affected: working parents in India and abroad, especially new mothers returning to work; fathers deciding how much leave to take; and employers designing leave and return-to-work policies.

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