The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 aims to protect the dignity of motherhood by providing financial and non-cash benefits to pregnant women, including paid leave before and after childbirth. The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 expanded these benefits to include increased maternity leave and provisions for adoptive mothers. Challenges for women include gender inequality in hiring, resignation post-pregnancy, and lack of childcare facilities, highlighting the need for further support in balancing work and family responsibilities.

1. MATERNITY BENEFIT ACT,1961
N.SUBHASHINI
Pre Senior year

2. The basic objective of the Maternity Benefit
Act, 1961, is to protect the dignity of
motherhood and the dignity of a new person
by providing for full and healthy maintenance
of the women and her child at this important
time when she is not working, by providing:

3. Cash Benefits
• Leave with average pay for six weeks before the child
birth
• Leave with average pay for six weeks after the child
birth
• A medical bonus if the employer does not provide free
medical care to the mother
• An additional leave with pay up to one month if the
woman shows proof of illness owing to the pregnancy,
delivery, miscarriage or premature birth
• In case of miscarriage, six weeks leave with average pay
starting from the date of miscarriage.

4. Non Cash Benefits/Privilege
• Light work for ten weeks (six weeks plus one month)
before the date of expected delivery, if the affected
person asks for it
• Two nursing breaks in the course of lady's daily work
until the child is 15 months old
• No discharge or dismissal while on maternity leave
• No change to disadvantage in any of the conditions of
her employment while on maternity leave
• Pregnant women discharged or dismissed can still
claim maternity benefit from the employer.

5. ELIGIBILITY
As per the Act, to be eligible for maternity
benefit, a woman must have been working as
an employee in an establishment for a period
of at least 80 days within the past 12 months.
Payment during the leave period is based on
the average daily wage for the period of actual
absence.

6. Maternity Benefit(Amendment) Act,
2017
The Maternity (Amendment) Bill 2017, an
amendment to the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961:
Increased Paid Maternity Leave-26 weeks
Maternity leave for adoptive and commissioning
mothers-12 weeks
Work from Home option(once leave period of 26
weeks ends)
Crèche facility- organizations having 50 or more
employees

7. Beneficiary Statistics
• According to the World Bank, India ranks 120
amongst 131 countries in female labor force
participation rates

8. Lack of Clarity
• Mental and Physical Health
• Hiring problem(Gender Inequality)
• Post Pregnancy resignation
• Child Care Facilities
• Paternity Leave-not included

9. PHYSICAL AND
MENTAL HEALTH

10. HIRING PROBLEMS
• Over 12 million women across all sectors
in India might not even get jobs because of
maternity leaves policy.
• Since employers, especially of small
businesses, incur huge costs due to maternity
leaves, they choose to hire men instead.

11. POST PREGNANCY
RESIGNATION
The various reasons:
1. Lacking family support
2. Access to childcare
3. Unable to work long hours and night shifts
4. Not given challenges and responsibilities in
work, not given promotion in work
5. Domestic duties and responsibilities
6. Social stigma against women in employment,
gender stereotype and aggressive behavior of
employees.

12. CHILD CARE FACILITIES
“Section 11A, introduced by the Maternity Act is
that any establishment which has 50 or more
employees shall have the facility of crèches.
The term 'employees' has been used to make
the provision neutral value in gender ,
because though a woman is biologically built
to give birth, however, the responsibility to
take care of a child lies with both the partners
of the family.

13. PATERNAL LEAVE NOT INCLUDED

14. • By providing paid paternity leave, increasing
the post pregnancy leave for women,
providing rights to claim their support at
workplace and many more benefits, could
have benefitted women as an employee.
• The act cannot fulfill the dreams of
motherhood who wants to accomplish in their
profession.

15. THANK YOU
“Women can’t have it all precisely
because they are responsible for too
many things!”