THE ICFAI UNIVERSITY

THE ICFAI LAW SCHOOL

DEHRADUN

ASSIGNMENT
ON
LABOUR LAW

NAME: SMRITI SINGH Submitted to:

E.ID: 17FLICDDN02130 MOHIT TYAGI
COURSE: BA.LLB(Hons.) Faculty Associate
Batch : 2017-2022 ICFAI Law School
Section : C

Subject ; LABOUR LAW

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MATERNITY BENEFIT ACT 1961

The fundamental purpose for providing maternity benefits is to preserve the self-respect for
motherliness, protect the health of women, complete safety of the child etc.

Main object behind providing maternity benefits

The fundamental purpose for providing maternity benefits is to preserve the self-respect for
motherliness, protect the health of women, complete safety of the child etc. The objective of
maternity benefits is to protect the dignity of “Motherhood” by providing the complete &
health care to the women & her child when she is not able to perform her duty due to her
health condition. There is need for maternity benefits so that a woman is to be able to give
quality time to her child without having to worry about whether she will lose her job and her
source of income.

The key features and implications of the Maternity Benefits Act, 2017 are:
Applicability of the Act: As per Section 2 of the Act, The Act is applicable to all those
women employed in factories, mines and including every shops or commercial
establishments employing 10 or more employees. As per this section the original provision
will prevail i.e. the Act is applicable to all women who are employed in any capacity directly
or through any agency i.e. either on contractual or a consultant.
Duration of Maternity Leave in India: The Act has increased the duration of paid maternity
leaves to 26 weeks from the present 12 weeks. The extended period is applicable to women in
case of the first and second child. Women who are expecting after having 2 children, the
duration of paid maternity leave shall be 12 weeks i.e. 6 weeks pre-delivery and 6 weeks
post-delivery.

Some low lights in the Amendment Act, 2017

·This Amendment promoting Patriarchy: Many social scientists are of opinion that it will
promote patriarchy’s almost whole responsibility of child caring are on the mother's as per
this amendment. Government has not announced any leave for fathers.
Adverse impact on the job opportunities for women: Many private firms may avoid giving
jobs to such women who may enter into pregnancy period as then they have to give them
maternity leave up to 26 weeks. The increase in the maternity leave could also have adverse
impact on the job opportunities for women. The requirement of full payment of wages during
maternity leave could increase costs for employers. It could result in increased preference for
hiring male workers. The provision could also impact the competitiveness of industries that
predominantly employs women workers.

Lack of clarity :Various provisions of the amended act lack clarity. For instance, there is no
clarity in the act regarding the time period up to which the crèche facility could be extended
to the employee and also regarding the aspect of availability, frequency and extent of nursing
breaks. The provisions regarding the applicability of the Act to the unorganised sector also
remain unclear. Though, on one hand, the act states that it covers all women working in
mines, plantations, shops, and establishments as well as factories in both organised and
unorganised sectors. But on the other hand, the Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Act,
2008 defines unorganised sector workers as those who are home based, self-employed, or
wage workers working in an entity having less than 10 employees. So the provisions did not
clarify whether the act is applicable to the women employees in those enterprises having less

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than 10 employees. This is disturbing as over 90% of the working women are employed in
unorganised sector in India.

Lack of Institutional support :Though the women working in unorganised sector can avail
benefits from the schemes such as the Janani Suraksha Yojanaand the Indira Gandhi
Matritva Sahyog Yojana, they get their benefit only in terms of cash assistance and lack
other institutional support provided in the maternity benefit Act.

Recommendations
Increasing maternity benefit is a welcome step but the government should devise some
mechanism to ensure that competitiveness of the private sector is not affected.

Need to bring uniformity in labour law about maternity benefits: The government should try
to bring about uniformity in labour laws about maternity benefits. The acts like Employees
State Insurance Act, 1948, All India Services (Leave) Rules, 1955, Central Civil Services
(Leave) Rules, 1972, Factories Act, 1948, and the Unorganized Workers Social Security Act,
2008 have differences in coverage, benefits and financing. All these laws must be
amalgamated to uniformly disseminate the benefits across various sectors in India.

Better to rethink on financial burden of the employer: The present amendment has the
potential to dissuade employers from employing women as they have to bear the financial
burden of maternity benefits. So to stop this, the government should follow the advice of
ILO. ILO has stated that the cost of providing maternity benefits must not be exclusively
borne by the employer. In this regard, the government should come forward in addressing the
maternity benefit financing issues. The government should opt for paying benefits through
compulsory social insurance or public funds as recommended by the ILO. In this regard, the
Pan-India expansion of Maternity Benefit Programme (MBP)of the Ministry of Women &
Child Development is a welcome step. The scheme is applicable to all pregnant women and
lactating mothers and excludes the pregnant women and lactating mothers in regular
employment with the Central Government or State Governments and in Public Sector
Undertakings.

It should provide scope for Paternity benefit: Another issue is that the amendments are silent
on provisions regarding paternity benefits. At present, paternity benefits are permitted in
government jobs as a part of leave rules and in private organizations as a matter of internal
policy. In this regard, ILO has recognised men’s right to parenthood. It wants to see men as
active co-parent. In a country where gender stereotypes are predominant, a gender-balanced
approach to parenthood is needed. The government should come up with a incentivised
schemes regarding paternity benefits to achieve this objective.

Significance of the Amendment Act, 2017

The amended act has raised the maternity benefits from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. This is
significant and is in line with the recommendation of the World Health Organisation which
says that children must be exclusively breastfed by the mother for the first 24 weeks. The
extension in the maternity leave will help in improving survival rates of children and healthy
development of both mother and child.

This will also reduce the instances of women dropping out of the labour force due to absence
of adequate maternity leave.

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The amended act also falls in line with international best practices such as the Maternity
Protection Convention, 2000 (No183) which calls for at least 14 weeks of mandatory
maternity benefit.

Another significant feature is the introduction of 12 weeks of maternity benefits to the

adopting and commissioned mothers.

The amended provisions have placed India third worldwide only behind Canada and Norway
globally in the amount of maternity benefits being made available to the women workers.

Conclusion
Motherhood was one of the most important and challenging jobs in the world and that, in
India, all religions have held the role of a mother as an esteemed position. The court
concluded that motherhood was an inherent and integral part of a woman’s dignity, which is
protected by Article 21 of the Constitution as per judicial pronouncements in India. So,
finally one can say that the amendments are a welcome and positive move by the
government. At the same time, the government should address the above shortcomings and
should work towards ensuring that the law provides equal opportunities to women at the
workplace.
“Any society that fails to harness the energy and creativity of its women is at a huge
disadvantage in the modern world”