I am supposed to be transferred to Washington DC, United States and instead of getting excited, I am pretty sad and nervous. The reason is my friend Rashika. Rashika was back home last year from New York. She came with a sweet 9 month Jazz in her hand. She said that she had to undergo many traumatic and painful situations in the US to have a baby.

Of all the 181 countries she was in the US, the so called most successful capitalist developed country. What could I imagine was traumatic and painful situations she faced. On asking she said that even the largest companies in the US don’t provide paid parental leave. Now that was shocking. It seemed as if I was hearing something about Swaziland of South Africa or Papua New Guinea. But no, it was the United States. She further said that the bigger the company is the violent the rule. Some small companies do provide paid parental leave but companies with turnover in millions and billions of USD never did.

Talk to HR

The next thing I asked her was, did she talk to the HR. She said yes, she did and surprisingly the HR said to use her holiday and sick leaves to replace the leaves she wanted due to her pregnancy and for infant care. It is not that they don’t provide leave, yes they do. They provide 12 weeks off, but all unpaid. Thanks to HR that she did offer something, but that is almost nothing for a mother.

Medical has proved and advised that for the first 6 months child should have breast milk. Now as the employee is expected to continue the work a few days immediate to her child’s birth, how on earth possible could any mother set a breastfeeding system. This of course is not done, and so the child and the mother both face terrible health issues. As the mother will not be healthy both mentally and physically she is prone to be sick and stressed out in her duty hours. That will ultimately bring loss to the company and also that the company may lose some efficient employees.

God, I wish that the government of the United States understands the problem and make some amendments in the system. Let’s all try together so that like my friend Rashika we never have to face such troubles.