Raising a common issue of women students pursuing higher studies, BJP MLA Mukesh Mahaling on Tuesday urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to make provision of maternity leave for students of colleges and universities in the State.
In a letter to the Chief Minister, Shri Mahaling said such a leave would help check the dropout of female students.
“It is seen that girls of the State on attaining permissible marriage age are proactively enrolling themselves in colleges and universities for higher study, in undergraduate, post-graduate and PhD courses,” he said.
It is observed that these married women get pregnant while pursuing their higher studies and they face difficulties in maintaining the required attendance, becoming ineligible to appear in the examinations, he noted.
Because of this, women are forced to discontinue studies and such dropout cases are increasing day by day, he added.
Even though a direction has been issued by the University Grant Commission (UGC) in this regard, no action has been taken to frame appropriate rules regarding maternity leave or childcare leave for women students, Shri Mahaling said.
He said that besides making a provision for such a leave, the State Government must also consider online classes for women during that period.
“In View of the above facts, I suggest the Government of Odisha to frame rules for granting maternity/child care leave as per the direction of the UGC along with making provision for teaching in virtual mode to women students during the maternity leave,” read the letter.