What step can take if not getting maternity leave in pvt company?

Hi ,
My one friend is working in a pvt Indian company, employee strength is 48. She is 1.3 years old employee.She is 3 months pregnant , she need ML in future after 5 months, as her employment will be near 1.8yrs old with the same company. The company is running by owner as MD position and he is taking directly the decision for long leave.
Now the head is forcing her to drop resignation. They are telling "our employee strength is below 50, we could not bear the cost".
I told not to drop any formal mail, but I also want to know, What step she can take in this situation?
She actually manage her office smoothly during the tough stage. Now she is OK for compromises with 3 months leave and 3 months WFH.
There are no ML or PL mention in leave policy shared by owner(MD).
Please help to understand because most of the startup company is not following any maternity leave policy and when the time come for particular lady employee they directly forcing to put resignation.

Dear Manashi,
Lot of discussion already has taken place on the issues that were similar to yours. You may check the past threads:
https://www.citehr.com/588745-matern...sons-such.html
https://www.citehr.com/587381-compan...ng-resign.html
https://www.citehr.com/588912-matern...asking-me.html
https://www.citehr.com/589497-matern...gn-rejoin.html
Check the replies of the experts as well as my replies. Make a action plan of how to handle the situation. Upload the action plan here. Some senior like to me will correct it.
Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

Hi Manashi,
It is so sad to see that some employers are still considering human resource as just 'cost'.
Coming to the statutory angle, doesn't require any inside policy to claim Maternity Leave.
Now let's look at it from a different perspective. Being a boss driven company, the 'management' will play all sort of games to make your friend leave the company and save the money to be paid during maternity leave. A fight with this kind of people will drain her energy and it can affect the baby as well.
1. So if there is an option for her to work from home, it can be a relief. Because after delivery, she may not be able to come back to work after 6 months immediately and she may take couple of months more to get in to a comfortable stage (and it depends, some can quickly come back to work).
2. If her decision is not to work with this kind of soulless organizations, recommending her to negotiate for a good notice pay. Let the company pay for it. The experience gap during maternity is not at all considered as a huge issue now a days and we are seeing a good number of women rejoin industry post delivery.
3. If the company is not willing to give 3 months leave and then WFH or not ready to give a reasonable notice period to quit, probably your friend should talk to National commission for women, India.