Jwalika Balaji is a Research Fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. She completed her BA LLB (Hons) from the National Law School of India University, Bangalore and read for the Bachelor of Civil Law from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. She primarily researches the areas of family law, human rights, and equality law.
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Two children too many? Expanding maternity benefits to mothers with more than two children in India
On 23 May 2025, the Indian Supreme Court in K. Umadevi v. Government of Tamil Nadu broadened the interpretation of Tamil Nadu Fundamental Rule (‘FR’) 101(a), which only provided maternity leave to female government servants with less ...
Rethinking the POSH Act in India: Expanding sexual harassment to include sex-based harassment at the workplace
In India, the primary legislative instrument aimed at creating safe and dignified workplaces for women is the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 (‘POSH Act’). Although the ...
Can’t Fathers Feed their Babies? Critiquing the Indian Supreme Court’s order on gendered infant-care in public
In February 2025, the Supreme Court of India passed a landmark order in Maatr Sparsh, An Initiative by Avyaan Foundation v. Union of India, acknowledging the intertwined legal rights of mothers and infants to breastfeeding, nursing, ...
Maternity Benefits and Child Care Leave to Mothers: The Supreme Court of India’s Narrow and Unsatisfactory Approach to Gender Equality in the Labour Force
The Supreme Court of India in a recent order in Shalini Dharmani v State of Himachal Pradesh reaffirmed that Child Care Leave granted to women was in furtherance of the Constitutional guarantee of enabling and promoting women’s ...
