Jyotiraditya Scindia bats for paternity leave in airlines, 50% women pilots

New Delhi, March 16

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia today asked airlines to consider allowing paternity leave and also batted for increasing the share of women pilots in the country from 15 per cent to 50 per cent.

Addressing an event here to acknowledge the role of women in the aviation sector, he said, “I believe our airlines are doing a tremendous job in terms of creating a healthy workplace environment for our women, whether it is creches, maternity leave and other structures.”

“We need to create an environment which is not only gender neutral, but which looks at an equal responsibility on men as well as women in terms of family environment,” he said.

“A case in point is that why do we look at the concept of maternity leave only. We must also look at the concept of paternity leave,” Scindia said.

Noting that currently 15 per cent of total pilots in India are women and globally just 5 per cent, he said there was a need for a paradigm shift and 50 per cent of the country’s pilot strength should be women.