Maternity Benefit After Crossing Esi Limit?

Sir,
I have paid 2 contribution period of ESI till 2011 march from May 2010.April 2011 Onwards my salary increased to 15780.My delivery date is on august 2011.I want to know whether i am eligible for maternity benefit or not.April 2011 onwards i am not paying esi contribution.

If your ESIC contributions are paid for 70 days in the two immediately preceding contribution periods, then only you are eligible for maternity benefits under ESIC.

Dear Ms.Snipo
According to you, you have paid two Contribution period of ESI till March 2011. That works out to 61 days. You need not worry for this. Once you go out of the ESI Act's coverage, you are automatically covered by the provisions of the Maternity Benefit Act assuming that the Maternity Benefit Act applies to the establishment in which you are employed. Therefore you are entitled to get maternity benefit under this Act. Morevoer as your delivery date is only on August 2011, by that time you would have worked for more than 80 days in the establishment and would have fulfilled the requirements regarding number of days worked for getting the maternity benefit under the MB Act.

I thank Mr Harikrishnan for his immediate response to queries. I welcome his comments. Having retired at the level of Joint Commissioner of Labour his is more an authoritative clarifications. thanx a lot mr Harikrishnan.
regards

Dear Ms Sinipo
Contribution period is related to the wage period. Wage period simply means, the periodical intervals for which you are paid wages/salary. That is, the wage period could be a month, a fortnight or a week or a day. Therefore contribution of both the employee and the employer could be for a month or a fortnight or a week or a day depending on the wage period. I presume that in your case you should be paid monthly wages/salary.
Therefore in your case, contributions under the ESI Act would have been recovered in respect of each month till you went out of the applicability of the ESI Act.