全国30省份延长产假:西藏产假最长可达一年

A total of 30 regions in China have extended paid maternity leave to up to one year, one of the supportive measures introduced after the country changed its family planning policy to allow all couples to have a second child in 2016.

Maternity leave in most provinces and municipalities has been extended to around 158 days, with the longest leave on offer being one year in Southwest China’s Tibet Autonomous Region. New mothers in Northwest China’s Gansu Province and Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province are entitled to 180 days paid time off work, while in Shanghai, Tianjin and East China’s Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces leave has been increased to 128 days, according to The Beijing News.

The extensions were made based on the amended Law on Population and Family Planning which was approved in 2016. All women who give birth are guaranteed up to three months of additional maternity leave in addition to the 98 days originally mandated, and their spouses can enjoy paid paternity leave of 15 days, according to the revised law.

Experts believe that the popular extensions should also create leeway for both female employees and their companies as longer leave may adversely affect women’s career development and increase the financial burden on enterprises.

The Tibet Health and Family Planning Commission published a notice on the two-child policy on July 5, which said that women with a Tibet household registration, or hukou, who work for organizations, enterprises and public institutions are entitled to have one year of paid maternity leave with each child to which they give birth. Their spouses can enjoy 30 days of paternity leave, according to the website of the commission.

Family planning policies are more relaxed in Tibet as they mostly apply to ethnic Han. Ethnic Tibetans are not restricted by the policies.

Tibet has a population of 3 million, according to a 2010 census, with at least 90 percent of residents being ethnic Tibetans, while the number of ethnic Hans is 245,000, accounting for eight percent, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

Guan Xinping, an expert on social policy at Nankai University in Tianjin, told the Global Times that maternity leave is particularly long in Tibet partially due to the region’s harsh climate and natural conditions.

The extensions to maternity leave are likely to be welcomed by a majority of netizens, as a survey conducted by China Youth Daily in 2016 showed that 89 percent of the 2,966 respondents wanted an extension to maternity leave, and 40 percent of them hoped it would be extended to six months.

"To be more precise, the additional maternity leave is for infant care, as women’s health is usually restored after the 98 mandated days," Guan said.

As mother and father should take on the both responsibility for taking care of infants, women and their partners should be entitled to the same amount of leave, according to Guan.

Many netizens echoed Guan calling for an increase of the paternity leave which in most places is about 15 to 30 days.