New Delhi, July 13 (The Telegraph): Flipkart, the e-commerce portal, has announced an allowance of Rs 50,000 each for employees looking to adopt children so that they can use it "towards legal, agency, regulatory costs or any other expenses".

The Internet one-stop shop that sells books to make-up has also said that women employees who adopt children younger than 12 months would get the same maternity leave allowed to pregnant women - six months of paid leave along with four months of flexible working hours.

In case the adopted child is older than a year, the woman employee will be allowed three months of paid leave and four months of flexible working hours.

If the leave proves inadequate and the employee has no leave to spare, "they can take unpaid leave for up to three months and continuity on the same job is assured", a spokesperson of the Bangalore-based company said.

Flipkart announced the leave policy today on Twitter.

According to government guidelines, the cost of the enitre adoption process is Rs 46,000, Rs 4,000 less than the allowance offered by the company.

Flipkart has, however, made it clear that the allowance and leaves would not be valid for women wanting to sponsor a child in any institutional care programme.

Male employees can also avail themselves of six weeks' paid adoption leave in the first six months and four months of flexible working hours.

Women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi, who has been pushing for easier adoption norms in the country, praised Flipkart.

"It is a great step forward that Indian couples are being encouraged to adopt children. I congratulate Flipkart for such a novel CSR (corporate social responsibility)," she said.

On its Twitter feed, Flipkart mentioned that the adopting parent could seek support on parenting, child care, emotional health, work-life balance, family health and so on. For those planning to adopt, the company will also offer counselling and referral services.

While many private companies provide child care leaves for adoptive mothers, the time period is usually half that of the maternity leave of 90 days for biological mothers.

It is rare for a company to have any policy of paternity leave for adoption.

Under rules of the Centre, a female employee gets a child adoption leave of 180 days and a male employee gets 15 days of leave within six months of adoption - both with full pay.

Flipkart's policy has come at a time Maneka's ministry has finalised a set of proposals to overhaul the adoption process and crack down on erring adoption agencies. The Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Bill, which will includes the new provisions by Maneka's ministry, is expected to be passed in the monsoon session of Parliament.

For the ministry, the good news is that for the first time in three years, adoption in India has seen a slight increase in the quarter between January-March 2015.

The number of adoptions have been declining every year since 2012-2013, despite India having one of the largest population of children who are abandoned, deserted or in institutional care. Around 50,000 orphan children require homes.

"It is great that companies like Flipkart are thinking on these lines. I wish I was working for them when I adopted my child. Hopefully, this will spur other companies into action," said Tathagata Sen, who works with a major IT firm in Gurgaon.

Photo credit: The Telegraph