Two Women Fought to Change India's Maternity Laws... and Succeeded

When Hamsaanandini Nanduri brought home two siblings — aged two and five — in 2017, she had six weeks of maternity leave, and a few of those were already gone. The law hadn't considered what it actually takes to settle a child who has known loss, institution walls, and then a new home overnight. Hamsa could manage. She knew many mothers couldn't. Four years later, she and her friend and lawyer Bani Dikshit quietly began to challenge that. In 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in their favour. This episode is about that journey — the patience it required, the gap between law and lived experience, and why this change in rules should be the starting point for a more gender-neutral, empathetic legal transformation for parents.