[Analysis] Maternity Benefit Act under Code on Social Security 2020 – Eligibility | Duration | Duties

Maternity benefit under the Code on Social Security 2020 is governed by Chapter VI of the Code, which replaced the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. A woman who has actually worked at least eighty days in the twelve months before her expected delivery is entitled to twenty-six weeks of paid leave, of which not more than eight weeks may precede delivery. The benefit is paid at the average daily wage, along with a medical bonus of ₹3,500 where the employer does not provide pre-natal confinement and post-natal care free of charge.

Law stated as on 20 July 2026. The Code on Social Security, 2020 was brought into force in stages, the bulk of it with effect from 21 November 2025.

Table of Contents

1. What replaced the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961
2. Who is eligible for maternity benefit
3. How the benefit is calculated
4. How many weeks a woman can claim
5. Adopting mothers and commissioning mothers
6. Work from home after maternity benefit
7. Medical bonus, miscarriage and tubectomy leave
8. Nursing breaks and crèche facility
9. Where an establishment is also covered by ESI
10. Five things the Code changed
11. Frequently asked questions
12. Conclusion

1. What replaced the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961

The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 is one of the nine welfare enactments subsumed by the Code on Social Security, 2020. Its provisions now sit in Chapter VI of the Code, sections 59 to 72.

Most of the substance carried across unchanged. Section 60 of the Code corresponds to section 5 of the 1961 Act, and in places the two texts are word for word identical. But five things did change, and one of them costs employers three and a half times what it used to. Those are set out in section 10 below.

2. Who is eligible for maternity benefit

Two conditions must be satisfied, and they come from different places.

First, the establishment must be covered, which follows from section 1(4) read with the First Schedule. Under the First Schedule to the Code, Chapter VI applies to every factory, mine or plantation, including one belonging to Government, and to every shop or establishment in which ten or more employees are employed, or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months, and such other shops or establishments as the appropriate Government notifies. Note the structure: the ten-employee threshold attaches only to the second limb. A factory, mine or plantation is covered whatever its headcount.

Second, the woman must have actually worked for not less than eighty days in an establishment of the employer from whom she claims the benefit, in the twelve months immediately preceding her expected date of delivery.[1] The Explanation to section 60(2) makes the count more generous than it first appears. Three categories of day are taken into account:

• days on which she has actually worked in the establishment
• days for which she has been laid off
• days she was on holidays declared under any law to be holidays with wages

Nothing in the section restricts the benefit to permanent staff. In MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF DELHI vs. FEMALE WORKERS (MUSTER ROLL) and another 2000 taxmann.com 3094 (SC)/[2000] 85 FLR 185 (SC)[08-03-2000], the Supreme Court held that there is nothing in the legislation entitling maternity benefit only to regular women employees and not to those engaged on a casual basis, on muster roll or on daily wages.

3. How the benefit is calculated

Section 60(1) fixes the rate at the average daily wage for the period of the woman’s actual absence, meaning the period immediately preceding the day of her delivery and any period immediately following that day.

The Explanation defines the average daily wage as the average of her wages payable for the days on which she has worked during the three calendar months immediately preceding the date from which she absents herself on account of maternity, subject to the minimum rate of wage fixed or revised under the Code on Wages, 2019.

What counts as absence has been litigated. In B. SHAH vs. PRESIDING OFFICER, LABOUR COURT and others 1977 taxmann.com 127 (SC)/[1977] 35 FLR 414 (SC)[12-10-1977], the Supreme Court held that actual absence includes wageless holidays falling within the period, computed on a seven-day week.

4. How many weeks a woman can claim

Section 60(3) sets the ceiling for a woman’s own confinement and section 60(4) sets it for adoption and surrogacy. Neither is the same for every woman.

Situation	Maximum period	May precede delivery
Woman with fewer than two surviving children	26 weeks	Not more than 8 weeks
Woman with two or more surviving children	12 weeks	Not more than 6 weeks
Woman who legally adopts a child below three months, or a commissioning mother	12 weeks	Runs from the date the child is handed over

The second and third provisos to section 60(3) deal with death during the benefit period; the first is the twelve-week reduction already in the table above. Where a woman dies during the period, benefit is payable only for the days up to and including the day of her death. Where she has been delivered of a child and dies during delivery or in the period immediately following, leaving the child, the employer is liable for the entire period. If the child also dies during that period, liability runs to the date of the child’s death. The Explanation to section 60(3) provides that “child” includes a stillborn child.

A fixed-term contract does not cut the entitlement short. In Dr. KAVITA YADAV vs. SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF HEALTH and FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT and others [2023] 8 taxmann.com 1497 (SC)/[2023] 179 FLR 903 (SC)[17-08-2023], the Supreme Court held that once the conditions of entitlement are fulfilled, a woman is eligible for the full maternity benefit even where it exceeds the duration of her contract, and that enforcing the contract-duration term during that period would constitute a discharge attracting the statutory embargo. The law creates a fiction treating her as in employment for the sole purpose of availing the benefit.

5. Adopting mothers and commissioning mothers

Section 60(4) confers twelve weeks of maternity benefit on a woman who legally adopts a child below the age of three months, and on a commissioning mother. The period runs from the date the child is handed over.

The Code defines a commissioning mother in section 2(13) as a biological mother who uses her egg to create an embryo implanted in any other woman.

Surrogacy has produced its own line of authority. In SUPRIYA JENA vs. STATE OF ODISHA and others [2024] 6 taxmann.com 685 (Orissa)/[2024] 183 FLR 992 (Orissa)[25-06-2024], the High Court held that surrogate mothers are entitled to maternity benefit, and that maternity leave should be granted to employees who become mothers through surrogacy so that all new mothers are treated equally irrespective of how they became parents.

6. Work from home after maternity benefit

Section 60(5) is short and easy to overlook. Where the work assigned to a woman is of such nature that she may work from home, the employer may allow her to do so after availing the maternity benefit, for such period and on such conditions as the employer and the woman mutually agree.

Three points follow from the drafting. The facility arises after the benefit period, not instead of it. It is permissive, not a right the woman can insist on. And the period and conditions are a matter of agreement, which in practice means a written application from the woman stating why the work can be performed from home, and a written permission from the employer specifying the conditions and the period.

7. Medical bonus, miscarriage and tubectomy leave

Section 64 entitles every woman entitled to maternity benefit to a medical bonus of ₹3,500, or such amount as may be notified by the Central Government. The bonus is payable only where the employer does not provide pre-natal confinement and post-natal care free of charge. Under Rule 35(2)(d) of the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 as notified, it is paid along with the maternity benefit. Form XIV, the statutory abstract, still carries the older formula that it is paid with the second instalment.

Section 65 provides leave with wages at the rate of maternity benefit in three further situations:

Ground	Leave with wages
Miscarriage or medical termination of pregnancy	6 weeks immediately following the day
Tubectomy operation	2 weeks immediately following the day
Illness arising out of pregnancy, delivery, premature birth of child, miscarriage or medical termination of pregnancy	Maximum 1 month, in addition to absence under section 62 or section 65(1)

Each of these requires proof. Rule 35(1) prescribes a certificate in Form X from a registered medical practitioner, an Accredited Social Health Activist, or a qualified Auxiliary Nurse and Midwife. Wages payable under section 65 must be paid within forty-eight hours of production of that certificate.[2]

Where a woman dies before receiving the benefit, section 63 directs payment to the person nominated in her notice under section 62, and failing a nominee, to her legal representative. Rule 35(2)(e) requires that payment within two months of the date of death.

8. Nursing breaks and crèche facility

Section 66 entitles a woman who returns to duty after delivery to two nursing breaks in the course of her daily work, in addition to her rest interval, until the child attains fifteen months. Rule 36 fixes each break at fifteen minutes, with a further period of up to fifteen minutes allowed for the journey to and from the crèche depending on distance. Disputes about that extra period go to the competent authority. No deduction from wages may be made on account of nursing breaks.[3]

Section 67(1) requires every establishment covered by Chapter VI in which fifty employees, or such number as the Central Government may prescribe, are employed to provide a crèche, separately or along with common facilities. The employer must allow the woman four visits a day to the crèche, which includes her rest intervals. An establishment may use a common crèche run by Government, a municipality, a private entity, a non-governmental organisation, or pooled between establishments.

Rule 37 sets the physical standards, and they are specific: the crèche must be within one kilometre of the establishment, must provide at least ten square feet of floor area per child, must be in the charge of a woman with midwifery qualification or training, and where the number of children exceeds ten, must have one ayah per ten children up to six years of age. Working hours of the crèche must correspond to those of the employees.

Rule 37 also introduces a crèche allowance of not less than ₹500 per month per child, admissible for two children only, where a negotiating union or council under section 14 of the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, or a majority of the employees, agrees with the employer that the allowance will be paid in place of the facility.

One obligation is easy to miss entirely. Section 67(2) requires every covered establishment to intimate every woman in writing and electronically, at the time of her initial appointment, of every benefit available under the Chapter. That is an onboarding step, not an annual return.

9. Where an establishment is also covered by ESI

An establishment can fall within both Chapter IV and Chapter VI. Chapter IV gives an insured woman maternity benefit through the Employees’ State Insurance route under section 32; Chapter VI puts the liability on the employer directly.

Section 61 resolves the overlap. Every woman entitled to maternity benefit under Chapter VI continues to be so entitled, notwithstanding the application of Chapter IV, until she becomes qualified to claim maternity benefit under section 32. The employer’s liability does not simply switch off because the establishment is ESI-covered; it runs until the woman actually qualifies under the insurance route.

Qualification under section 32 is not automatic. Rule 22(3) requires contributions payable for not less than seventy days in the immediately preceding two consecutive contribution periods. A woman who has not met that condition remains the employer’s liability under Chapter VI. Our companion note on ESI under the Code on Social Security sets out the section 32 benefits and the Rule 22 rates in full.

10. Five things the Code changed

Reading Chapter VI beside the 1961 Act, five differences emerge. The first is the one with a cost attached; the rest are the kind that only show up when a specific case lands on your desk.

Point	Maternity Benefit Act, 1961	Code on Social Security, 2020
Medical bonus	₹1,000, with a mechanism to revise every three years up to a maximum of ₹20,000	₹3,500, or such amount as notified. The three-yearly revision mechanism and the ₹20,000 cap are gone
Wage floor for the average daily wage	Minimum Wages Act, 1948, or ten rupees, whichever is highest	The minimum rate of wage fixed or revised under the Code on Wages, 2019. The ten-rupee floor is dropped
The eighty-day rule	Did not apply to a woman who had immigrated into the State of Assam and was pregnant at the time of immigration	That exemption has no counterpart in the Code
Leave for illness	Section 10 listed tubectomy operation among the grounds of illness attracting one month’s leave	Section 65(3) omits tubectomy from that list, though section 65(2) retains two weeks’ leave for the operation itself
Employer’s display obligation	Section 19 required an abstract of the Act and rules to be exhibited	Section 71 recasts this as duties of the employer, with section 67(2) adding written and electronic intimation at appointment

The fourth of these has not been tested. Whether the omission of tubectomy from section 65(3) means a woman suffering illness arising out of a tubectomy operation now has no claim to the one month, or whether it will be read as covered by the retained two-week entitlement in section 65(2), is a question the courts have yet to reach. Taxmann’s Law & Practice Relating to Code on Social Security prints section 65 against sections 9, 9A and 10 of the 1961 Act in a two-column table, which is the quickest way to see exactly what moved.

11. Frequently asked questions

Who is eligible for the Maternity Benefit Act?

Eligibility is now governed by section 60 of the Code on Social Security, 2020. A woman must have actually worked for not less than eighty days in the twelve months immediately preceding her expected date of delivery, in an establishment of the employer from whom she claims. Days laid off and statutory paid holidays count towards the eighty.

How many days can I claim my maternity benefit?

Twenty-six weeks, of which not more than eight weeks may precede the expected date of delivery. A woman with two or more surviving children is entitled to twelve weeks, of which not more than six may precede delivery. An adopting mother of a child below three months and a commissioning mother are entitled to twelve weeks.

What are the new rules for maternity benefit in India?

Chapter VI of the Code on Social Security, 2020 replaced the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 with effect from 21 November 2025. The medical bonus rose from ₹1,000 to ₹3,500, the wage floor is now set by the Code on Wages, 2019, and Rule 37 of the Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026 introduced a crèche allowance of not less than ₹500 per month per child.

Does maternity benefit apply to contract and daily-wage workers?

Yes. In MUNICIPAL CORPORATION OF DELHI vs. FEMALE WORKERS (MUSTER ROLL) and another 2000 taxmann.com 3094 (SC)/[2000] 85 FLR 185 (SC)[08-03-2000], the Supreme Court held that the benefit is not confined to regular employees and extends to women engaged on a casual basis, on muster roll or on daily wages, provided the statutory conditions are met.

Can an employer end a fixed-term contract during the maternity benefit period?

In Dr. KAVITA YADAV vs. SECRETARY, MINISTRY OF HEALTH and FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT and others [2023] 8 taxmann.com 1497 (SC)/[2023] 179 FLR 903 (SC)[17-08-2023], the Supreme Court held that where the conditions of entitlement are satisfied, the full benefit is payable even if it outlasts the contract, and enforcing the contract-duration term in that period amounts to a discharge attracting the statutory embargo.

12. Conclusion

Chapter VI is the part of the Code that most closely reproduces the statute it replaced, which makes it the easiest chapter to get wrong. The entitlements a payroll team already knows are almost all intact. What has moved sits in the machinery around them: the bonus figure, the wage floor, the proof forms, the forty-eight-hour payment window under Rule 35, the crèche standards in Rule 37, and the intimation obligation at appointment under section 67(2).

The courts are also still working out how the Code interacts with older service rules. On 15 July 2026, in Smt. Shikha Yadav v. State of U.P., Writ A No. 9299 of 2026, the Allahabad High Court held that the Code on Social Security prevails over executive instruction, including rule 153(1) of the Financial Hand Book. Expect more of that as pre-Code entitlements are tested against the new framework.

For the full text of Chapter VI set against the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 provision by provision, see Taxmann’s Law & Practice Relating to Code on Social Security. Where a specific case turns on the overlap between Chapter IV and Chapter VI, or on a pre-Code entitlement, Taxmann Advisory can take the file.

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[1] Section 60(2), Code on Social Security, 2020.

[2] Rule 35(2)(f), Social Security (Central) Rules, 2026.

[3] Section 69, Code on Social Security, 2020.