Confused About Maternity Benefit Days Requirement: Is It 160 or 180 Days?

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am confused to see that as per the Maternity Benefit Act 1961 (No. 53 of 1961), Clause 5 (2) states that no woman shall be entitled to maternity benefit unless she has actually worked in an establishment of the employer from whom she claims benefit for a period of not less than 180 days in the 12 months immediately preceding the date of her expected delivery. You can refer to the following link for more details: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/travail/docs...itsact1961.pdf

However, on this site: https://labour.gov.in/sites/default/...fitAct1961.pdf, the Maternity Benefit Act 1961 (No. 53 of 1961), Clause 5 (2) mentions that no woman shall be entitled to maternity benefit unless she has actually worked in an establishment of the employer from whom she claims benefit for a period of not less than 160 days in the 12 months immediately preceding the date of her expected delivery.

I would like to know which version is correct or if there has been an amendment to the act. I have attached both documents for your reference.

Thank you.

The second requirement, i.e., 160 days, was amended to 80 days in 12 months. You can consider 80 days and disregard the 160 days.

Ma'am,

I also want to know when it was amended and can you provide its notification for proof? Because even on labor law sites, I didn't get any notification regarding the amendment. Please....

The last amendment was in the year 2017.

The Maternity (Amendment) Bill 2017, an amendment to the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, was passed in the Rajya Sabha on August 11, 2016; in the Lok Sabha on March 09, 2017, and received assent from the President of India on March 27, 2017. The Gazette notification was published on March 28, 2017.

He was asking about the notification of changing the qualifying days to make an employee eligible for maternity benefits from 160 days to 80 days. It took place a decade ago, I think.

Dear Sir,

I received this file and also learned that "The Act was last amended by the Maternity Benefit (Amended) Act, 1988, which came into force on 10th Jan 1989. The qualifying period of service for the entitlement of Maternity Benefit under the Act has been reduced from 160 days to 80 days of actual work in the preceding twelve months."

I am still searching for the notification because the above-mentioned information is not a source. I want to know the source from where it was taken.

Queries related to maternity benefit acts

I have some queries related to the Maternity Benefit Acts. After serving more than 80 days in a company, "Provided that the maximum period entitled to maternity benefit by a woman having two or more than two surviving children shall be twelve weeks of which not more than six weeks shall precede the date of her expected delivery."

My question is: How many times can the same female employee take benefits of leaves in case of miscarriage if she is 4-5-6-7 months pregnant? Or do maternity benefits leave start only after her 6 months of delivery?

First of all, for an eligible woman employee, for the first two childbirths, the maternity leave is 26 weeks. Of these 26 weeks, she can take a maximum of 8 weeks before delivery.

In the case of a woman already having two children, the maternity leave is for 12 weeks. Of these 12 weeks, she can take a maximum of 6 weeks before delivery.

The leave for miscarriage is for 6 weeks without any qualification as to the number of days working. There is no mention of how many times a woman can take such leave.