Why Should Anyone Decide When A Mother Goes Back To Work?

Comedian and reality show host Bharti Singh recently gave birth to her first child, a baby boy. She recorded the entire period of her pregnancy even till the time she went into labour and shared her experience with her followers. Recently, she was seen going back to work after 12 days of delivery. This choice of hers is fetching her both good and bad remarks online.

In December last year, she and Haarsh Limbachiyaa had announced the pregnancy through their YouTube channel titled Lol (Life of Limbachiyaa). In the channel, they had updated on the baby's arrival and that they have nicknamed him Golla.

Singh is a comedian, who won second place in The Great Indian Laughter Challenge season 4. From then on she started her journey as a host who cracks a joke every now and then. She hosted Sau Saal Cinema Ke, then India's Got Talent. Then, along with Limbachiyaa, she hosted Hunarbaaz and The Khatra Khatra on the Colors TV.

Suggested Reading: Should We Idolise Women For Giving Up Their Maternity Leave?

Bharti Singh Maternity Leave

On April 3, she and her husband Haarsh Limbachiyaa welcomed their first child. However, two weeks into maternity leave, Singh decided on returning to work.

Yesterday, she posed for cameras on arriving for work. In a video recorded by a paparazzi account, she revealed that while leaving her 12-day-old son she was tearful but had to because of work obligations. "Lekin main bohot royi hu aaj (I cried a lot today). 12 din ka hai baby, but kaam kaam hai (the baby is 12-day-old but work is work)."

Since yesterday, the internet has been divided on her short maternity leave. Some users are showing her as the divine power and idol to women kind for coming back to work despite pushing a child out of her vagina, while others are calling her greedy and asking her to stop running after money and stay back home for at least 40 days.

Both extremes are wrong. It is true that birthing a child can be an experience that varies from mother to mother. Some find it extremely rewarding and easy, others may have a harrowing and depressing experience. However, again, these are not the only experience, there are nth number of them and it changes from woman to woman.

Like emotional experiences, physical experiences also vary. Some find it extremely painful post-birth and others may not, or for that matter economically too. Some mothers may have access to facilities and resources to afford to leave their child after a few days of birth and work while others may not have that access.

In short, experiences of all kinds vary. If it is important for a woman to get maternity leave, it is also important to respect a woman's choice to shorten or lengthen it. To call Singh greedy for choosing to work or shaming her for leaving her motherly duties takes us all back to the same question: why only women are held accountable for their child's welfare and care? What about their father? Did they not play a role in the baby's creation and do they not hold the same responsibility?

However, at the same time, it would be fatal to idolise Singh. To glorify a woman having to work despite feeling the lows of leaving the child at home or to ignore the pain that she might be in, is stupidity. One should not take a person's decision and immediately highlight it with black and white markers. Her decision to work is her CHOICE. We may come from different strands of feminism but ultimately one should respect a woman's choice and her decision before throwing one's opinion on the Internet.

The opinion expressed are the author's own.