This year, India became one of the most generous providers of maternity benefits in the world when it extended the period of maternity leave available to eligible working mothers from twelve (12) weeks to twenty-six (26) weeks – a drastic jump. In addition to other changes, India introduced maternity benefits for eligible adoptive and commissioning mothers (the biological mother of a child carried by a surrogate).
It is hoped that the longer leave period, along with new provisions relating to child care facility provision and remote working arrangements, will encourage more women to return to the workforce after the birth of a child. Organizations want to retain the qualified female employees in whose development and potential they invest, and anticipate that more attractive maternity benefits will aid in fulfilling this goal, which in turn might offset the increase to operating budgets resulting from the more generous maternity leave allowances.
Concerned primarily for the health of mothers and young infants, the Government of India affected this expansion of maternity benefits through amendments to several labor laws, including the Maternity Benefits (Amendment) Act, 2017 and the ESI (Central) Amendment Rules, 2017, and by the introduction of the Pan-India Maternity Benefits Program, a financial assistance program for mothers ineligible for maternity benefits under India's labor laws.
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