Meenu Padha
The Maternity Benefit Act of 1961 was created to protect women’s rights throughout the maternity time. It governs pregnant women’s employment before, during, and after the birth of a child. Working women receive certain monetary incentives throughout the maternity period as a result of this Act.After the 2019 amendment, the statute covers the entire country. The legislative intent of the act is to provide social fairness to working women.
Along the same lines, in 2017, a new bill was introduced to alter the Maternity Benefit Act. It was signed into law by the President in April 2017 and took effect the following month. Though, the amendment brought more beneficial entitlements to facilitate women but it becomes pertinent to look into the intricacies of its application. Thus, the author in this article dives deep into its practical implementation because without these assessment, the legislation would become infructuous, resulting into empty promise at empowerment.
A glance at maternity benefit Amendment Act, 2017
The following are the key changes made to the Maternity Benefit Act of 1961:
-For two surviving children, the Maternity Benefit term was raised from 12 weeks to 26 weeks.
-‘Adopting mother’ and ‘commissioning mother’ are entitled to 12 weeks of Maternity Benefit.
-After the 26-week vacation term has expired, you have the option of working from home.
– Crèche (day care) facilities are required for businesses with more than 50 employees. The maternity benefit could not be used until six weeks before the projected delivery date, according to the original act. This is changed to eight weeks in the modification. However, maternity leave will be limited to 12 weeks for women who have two or more children, and can be used no earlier than six weeks before the scheduled delivery date.
The act also provides 12 weeks of maternity leave to:
(i) a mother who legally adopts a child under the age of three months; and
(ii) a mother who is commissioning. (a commissioning mother is a biological mother who has a surrogate child using her egg.)
What has been achieved so far ?
The legislation on maternity benefits has been debated and established by the courts on several times. In Municipal Corporation of Delhi vs Female Workers (Muster Roll) and Ors , the Supreme Court ruled that female workers employed on the Muster Roll, ad hoc, or contract basis should be entitled to all of the Act’s benefits.
Similarly, in Anshu Rani vs State of Uttar Pradesh the Allahabad High Court concluded that the Act’s maternity leave length cannot be shortened, and that it is the woman’s entitlement to receive six months of maternity leave.
In criminal cases, the Maternity Benefit Act is also being taken into consideration by the courts. On the 20th of August 2018, the Metropolitan Magistrate Court of New Delhi convicted the accused of the offence charged under section 21 of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. The Maternity Benefit Act of 1961, as amended in 2017, must be viewed in the context of the consolidation and re-codification of its labour laws, referred to as the Labour Codes, from 2019 onwards. The Code on Social Security, one of the four labour codes, will replace nine social security legislations, including the Maternity Benefit Act of 1961, if and when it is approved. Trade unions have criticised this code for undercutting workers’ rights, such as maternity benefits
The current situation of female workforce
It is apposite to note that the provisions of the act are, in reality, applicable to a very small portion of the female workforce in India. According to the data, approximately 70% of Indian women do not work outside the home, and among the remaining women, 84% work in the unorganised sector. Among the remaining 16% women who work in the organised sector, a substantial number are engaged in informal work where the law does not apply. Consequently,) the estimate shows that less than 1% of all women in the labour force in India benefit from the law.
Women workers’ lack of awareness of their access to maternity benefits creates an additional barrier to them expressing their legal rights. Furthermore, the vast majority of women who work for a daily income are classified as independent contractors rather than employees on the payroll. As a result, the employer has successfully misled them into believing that they are not entitled to any benefits under the current legal framework.
Implementation of the Maternity Benefit Act, 2017:
The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Act 2017 is yet to have an influence on women’s employment opportunities. In contrast, according to the latest data from TeamLease, a human resource organisation, women’s participation has decreased in more than five out of ten industries since the Act’s introduction. The Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Act of 2017 has had little effect on women’s involvement in the labour field. Besides, the paper pointed out the provison of the act effectively applies to a tiny fraction of women workers.
Only 40% of the firms polled provide the legally required 26 weeks of paid maternity leave. According to the research, 53% of respondents believe the act is currently ineffective but would be beneficial in the long term.
According to the analysis, the legislation is predicted to increase women’s involvement in the workforce in the medium term (1-4 years) in seven of the ten industries examined. However, according to the survey, five of the ten sectors are lagging behind, with a decrease in the percentage of women in their workforce.
Conclusion:
After a thorough examination of the Reports, Study, Finding and Other authorities cited, we can conclude that there is a huge gap between the Maternity Benefits Act’s provision and its implementation. A glance at the degree of the awareness of the Act, women are still unable to distinguish between the provisions of the Maternity Benefits Act and other maternity programmes offered by the state and central government. Female employees frequently viewed the Acts as a component of other programmes. The working women who are aware, are being exploited by their employers but they are afraid to speak up for fear of losing their jobs or being harassed in other ways. The reason behind such fear is conspicuous because women believe that if they speak up about the situation or exploitation, they will be subjected to additional workplace criticism and harassment. There is a perception that businesses do not want to educate female employees about the Maternity Benefits Act due to self-interest. Working women in the unorganised private sector are more stressed than those in the public sector.Based on the study’s findings, both explicit and implicit, it is recommended that
(I) more efforts be made to educate working women about the Act’s maternity benefit, with employers because the liability for payment of maternity benefits is placed directly on the employer.
(ii) strict supervision by the implementing agencies of the provision of women-friendly facilities at work, and
(iii) special efforts be made to ascertain implementation of the Act’s provisions in private sector institutions.
(iv) The Act disregards fathers as caregivers when a child is born and it is still expected that women are completely responsible for caring children. Therefore, the need of the hour is to end this discrimination and change the perceptions of parenting roles.
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