New Delhi, Nov. 9 -- India has the second-widest maternity to paternity leave gap among 12 major economies, new data from global hiring and payroll platform Deel showed. While the typical Indian mother takes 130 working days of parental leave, fathers usually only take seven - the shortest paternal leave of any country studied, it said.

The analysis covered close to 5,000 parents in 12 major economies, and results showed that while a country's shared parental leave policies may look equitable and generous on paper, this does not necessarily translate into more equal leave-taking in practice, the report said.

On the global scale, the study found that mothers on long maternity leave see their pay fall much more than fathers do (especially...