India Maternity Leave & Benefit Calculator

About the India Maternity Leave & Benefit Calculator

Work out maternity leave and maternity benefit in India under Chapter VI of the Code on Social Security, 2020, which replaced the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961. From the expected date of delivery — or the date a child is handed over after an adoption or to a commissioning mother — the calculator gives the first and last day of leave, the day back at work, the six weeks after the delivery during which no one may employ you, the months of nursing breaks and the weeks you can ask to be kept from arduous work.

It checks the 80 days worked the Code asks for, and works out the benefit at your average daily wage for every day of leave — the part paid in advance and the part paid after the delivery — with the ₹3,500 medical bonus, leave after a miscarriage, a termination or a tubectomy, and a month more for an illness. Key dates go into your calendar as an .ics file.

Without a pass, the free preview shows the last day of your leave in full, with the first rows of each table (every amount hidden), the timeline as a marked picture and the first step of the working; the other dates, the amounts, the copy, the CSV and the calendar file need a Pro pass.

Common uses

• Planning when to start maternity leave and when you will be back at work.
• Checking the maternity benefit and medical bonus an employer should pay, and when.
• HR teams working out the dates and amounts for an employee, with a calendar file to share.
• Knowing the leave after an adoption, a surrogacy, a miscarriage or a tubectomy.

Leave under the Code

• Having a baby: at most 26 weeks, of which not more than 8 weeks before the expected date of delivery (section 60(3)). With two or more surviving children: 12 weeks, at most 6 before. Leave that starts later keeps its full length after the delivery.
• Adoption and commissioning mothers: 12 weeks from the date the child is handed over, for a woman who legally adopts a child below the age of three months, or a commissioning mother — a biological mother whose embryo is carried by another woman (sections 2(13), 60(4)).
• No work after the delivery: no employer may knowingly employ a woman, and she may not work, in the six weeks immediately after her delivery, miscarriage or medical termination of pregnancy (section 59). Twelve weeks that start six weeks before the expected date end a day before those six weeks do (more after a late birth), so the day back at work comes after the six weeks, and maternity benefit does not cover the days between; a later first day of leave keeps more of the 12 weeks for after the delivery.
• Miscarriage or medical termination: six weeks’ leave with wages at the rate of maternity benefit; tubectomy: two weeks; an illness arising out of the pregnancy, the delivery, a premature birth, a miscarriage or a termination: up to one month more, each with the proof the rules ask for (section 65).

Who is eligible, and who pays

Maternity benefit is due from an employer only to a woman who has actually worked for that employer for at least 80 days in the twelve months immediately before the expected date of delivery; days of lay-off and holidays with wages count (section 60(2)). Chapter VI applies to every factory, mine and plantation, and to every shop or establishment with ten or more employees on any day of the preceding twelve months, and to others the government notifies (First Schedule).

A woman insured under the Employees’ State Insurance part of the Code (Chapter IV) gets her maternity benefit from the ESI Corporation under its own rules and does not claim it from her employer under Chapter VI (section 41(7)(b)); until she qualifies there, the Chapter VI benefit continues (section 61).

How the benefit is worked out

The benefit is the average daily wage for each day of absence (section 60(1)): the average of the wages paid for the days you worked in the three calendar months before your leave, never below the minimum rate of wages under the Code on Wages, 2019. With ₹78,000 for 78 days worked, that is ₹1,000 a day, and 182 days of leave give ₹1,82,000.

The benefit for the days before the expected delivery is paid in advance, on proof of pregnancy; the rest within 48 hours of proof of the delivery (section 62(5)). A medical bonus of ₹3,500 — or another amount the Central Government notifies — is due if the employer does not provide pre-natal confinement and post-natal care without charge (section 64).

At work before and after the leave

• Arduous work: on your request, your employer may not ask you to do arduous work, work with long hours of standing or work likely to harm the pregnancy in the month before the six weeks before the expected delivery, nor in any of those six weeks you do not take as leave (section 59(3)–(4)).
• Notice: tell your employer in writing the date your leave starts — not earlier than eight weeks before the expected delivery; missing the notice does not take the benefit away (section 62).
• Nursing breaks: two breaks a day, besides the rest interval, until the child is fifteen months old (section 66).
• Crèche: an establishment with fifty or more employees must have one, or use a common one, and allow four visits a day (section 67).
• Work from home after the leave can be agreed when the work allows it (section 60(5)), and no dismissal during or because of the absence (section 68).

Source: Code on Social Security, 2020 (Gazette of India) — Chapter VI, sections 59 to 72, and the First Schedule.

Limitations

• Some details are left to rules and notifications: the length of nursing breaks, the proof needed, the crèche distance and the number of employees that calls for one, another medical bonus amount, other establishments covered. Check the rules that apply to your state and workplace.
• Women insured under ESI get maternity benefit from the ESI Corporation under its own rules, which this page does not work out.
• The average daily wage uses the wages and days you enter; what counts as wages for the days worked can depend on your pay structure.
• Your employer’s own policy may give more, such as longer adoption leave; this page works out the Code’s rules.

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