Jammu Tawi, July 16 -- Across the Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu and its affiliated hospitals, women doctors employed on contractual or academic arrangement terms-including Assistant Professors, Lecturers, and Casualty Medical Officers-are being denied paid maternity leave after childbirth. This denial comes even as the government extends such benefits to comparable or even junior staff elsewhere within its health services.
The issue stems from Service Order (S.O.) 364 of 2020, which governs contractual medical appointments in the Union Territory. While the order limits leave to just 15 days, it makes no mention of maternity leave. Administratively, this silence has been interpreted as a refusal to grant maternity benefits under th...