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House bill on mother and child health gets mixed reviews
Employers are concerned about the ability to cover the costs of extended maternity leave and the impact it might have on recruitment policy, especially among small and medium enterprises.
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A family planning professional prepares to insert a contraceptive at a family planning mobil service unit in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Dec. 10, 2016. Two women die every hour in Indonesia due to complications during pregnancy, childbirth and after delivery, according to a 2021 report from the United Nations Population Fund, which cited data from the Intercensal Population Survey 2015. (Antara/Basri Marzuki)
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bill aiming to provide a better environment for mothers and their children has garnered mixed reviews after the House of Representatives officially took it up – praised for extending parental leave but opposed by employers, while also perpetuating rigid gender roles.
Lawmakers will start deliberations on the mother and child welfare bill in the next legislative sitting period beginning in August, after it was listed as a House initiative in a plenary session last week.
The bill has captured wide attention for a number of different reasons, most prominently for a suggestion to extend maternity leave from three months to six and paternal leave for up to 40 days.
But some critics choose to focus on Article 10 of the draft bill that codifies a mother’s duty, saying it could set back the role of women by legally confining them to childcare.
Article 10 stipulates that every mother is obliged to “nurse the child for a minimum of six months” and “raise the child with religious values and character building”, among other things, and that these duties are assigned to the father or the family under limited or emergency circumstances.
Nursyahbani Katjasungkana, chair of the board of directors at the Legal Aid Foundation of the Indonesian Women’s Association for Justice (LBH APIK), criticized the provision for placing the responsibility of child-rearing squarely with the mother, while relegating the father and other family members to supporting or emergency roles.
“Sharing responsibility in the concept of gender equality is absent in this bill,” Nursyahbani told The Jakarta Post.
