- Maternity leave in India is 26 weeks of paid leave for the first two children and 12 weeks from the third, governed by the Code on Social Security, 2020 (effective Nov 21, 2025). It applies to establishments with 10+ employees.
- Eligibility needs 80 days of work in the 12 months before delivery. It covers permanent, temporary, contractual, adoptive, commissioning, and now gig workers.
- Employers pay 100% of average daily wage for the full leave. ESI-covered staff (below ₹21,000/mo) are paid by the ESI Corporation instead.
- A March 17, 2026 Supreme Court ruling gives adoptive mothers 12 weeks of leave regardless of the child's age, removing the old three-month cap.
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How much maternity leave does a woman get in India, and who actually pays for it? Twenty-six weeks of fully paid leave for the first two children, funded by the employer, at any establishment with 10 or more people.
The 26 weeks have not moved since 2017. The law behind them has. The Code on Social Security, 2020 took effect on 21 November 2025, and a Supreme Court ruling in March 2026 widened the rights of adoptive mothers.
Below are the rules, eligibility, pay, paperwork, penalties and the policy edits you need this quarter. For the wider statutory picture, start with our guide to labor and employment law in India.
What are the maternity leave rules in India in 2026?
Maternity leave in India runs on Chapter VI of the Code on Social Security, 2020, which absorbed the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 and its 2017 amendment. The entitlements carried over intact. Six rules do most of the work in practice.
- Leave duration: 26 weeks for the first two children, 12 weeks from the third onwards. Adoptive and commissioning mothers get 12 weeks from the date the child is handed over.
- Who pays: The employer pays 100% of average daily wage. For staff covered by Employee State Insurance, the ESI Corporation pays instead.
- Timing: Up to 8 weeks may be taken before the expected delivery date for the first or second child, and 6 weeks from the third. She can also take the whole period after delivery.
- Nursing breaks: Two breaks a day after she returns, until the child turns 15 months, on top of normal rest breaks.
- Work from home: Section 60(5) allows it once the leave ends, where the role permits and both sides agree. It is optional, not an entitlement.
- Crèche: Mandatory at 50 or more employees, within a prescribed distance, with up to four visits a working day.
Those six are your compliance floor. Everything else in this guide sits on top of them.
Maternity benefit is one statutory entitlement among several, so read it alongside the rest of your employee benefits in India.
It also has to reconcile with earned leave, casual leave and public holidays, which are set out in our breakdown of leave policy laws in India.
What did the Supreme Court change in March 2026?
On 17 March 2026, a bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan struck down Section 60(4) of the Code, the clause limiting adoption leave to mothers of children under three months. The court held it violated Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
The reasoning was practical as much as constitutional. Adoption in India rarely completes before a child turns three months, so the cap denied leave to nearly every mother it was written for. The bench found women adopting older children similarly situated in their roles, responsibilities and caregiving obligations.
The practical effect is simple: 12 weeks of paid leave from the date of handover, whatever the child's age. Any policy still carrying the three-month cap is unenforceable.
The same judgment asked the central government to recognise paternity leave as a social security benefit, which makes our note on paternity leave in India worth tracking.
Who is eligible for maternity leave in India?
A woman qualifies if she has worked at least 80 days for the employer she is claiming from, during the 12 months immediately before her expected delivery date, at an establishment with 10 or more employees. The 80 days do not need to be continuous.
| Category | Leave | Conditions |
|---|---|---|
| First and second child | 26 weeks | Up to 8 weeks pre-delivery, remainder after |
| Third child onwards | 12 weeks | Up to 6 weeks pre-delivery, 6 weeks after |
| Adoption | 12 weeks | From handover, any child age since March 2026 |
| Surrogacy (commissioning mother) | 12 weeks | From the date she receives the child |
| Miscarriage or medical termination | 6 weeks | From the date of the event, on medical proof |
| Tubectomy | 2 weeks | From the date of the operation |
| Pregnancy-related illness | Up to 1 month | Section 65, over and above the leave above |
Use the table as your quick check, then confirm one thing before you apply Chapter VI at all.
Women covered by ESI draw maternity benefit under the ESI provisions of the Code, not Chapter VI. ESI applies where gross wages are ₹21,000 a month or less, and ₹25,000 or less for employees with a disability. That ceiling has been debated for years but has not changed. Check ESI status first, because it decides who writes the cheque.
Do contract, temporary and gig workers qualify?
In most cases, yes. Eligibility follows days worked, not job title. Indian courts have held repeatedly that contract, temporary and daily-wage women workers qualify once they cross the 80-day mark. The Code also brings gig and platform workers into social security for the first time, through aggregator-funded schemes under Sections 113 and 114.
Here is how the categories most global employers run in India line up.
- Permanent and fixed-term employees: fully covered, on identical terms.
- Contract workers via a staffing agency: covered at 80 days. Your contract should say whether the principal employer or the agency carries the liability.
- Temporary and daily-wage workers: covered at 80 days. Muster-roll status is not a disqualifier.
- Gig and platform workers: coverage is being built through schemes funded by aggregator contributions rather than direct employer liability. Rollout is still in progress.
- Genuine independent contractors: outside Chapter VI, though misclassification risk applies the moment they start working like employees.
The safe test for a mixed workforce: if she clears 80 days and works under your direction, budget for the benefit.
If that line feels blurry on your team, the tests are laid out in our comparison of contractor versus employee in India.
It is also worth knowing exactly who is an independent contractor under Indian law before you sign anything.
Whichever way it lands, put the entitlement in writing in the India employment agreement.
What comes with maternity leave besides the 26 weeks?
This is the section teams under-scope on a first draft. Ten items sit inside the entitlement.
- Paid leave of 26 or 12 weeks at full average daily wage.
- Twelve weeks for adoptive and commissioning mothers, from handover, with no cap on the child's age.
- Six weeks of paid leave after a miscarriage or medical termination, and two weeks after a tubectomy.
- Up to one month of extra paid leave under Section 65 for illness arising from pregnancy, delivery, premature birth, miscarriage, medical termination or tubectomy.
- A medical bonus of ₹3,500 under Section 64, payable where the employer does not provide free pre-natal and post-natal care.
- Job protection from the day she notifies pregnancy. She cannot be dismissed, demoted or have wages cut on account of maternity, and she returns to the same or an equivalent role.
- Two nursing breaks a day until the child is 15 months.
- Crèche access, or a crèche allowance where a facility is not practical, at 50 or more employees.
- Lighter duties from 10 weeks before the due date. No long standing, no strenuous work, nothing likely to cause harm.
- Transfer of the benefit to a nominee if the employee dies during the leave period.
Write all ten into the policy, not just the headline number. The last four are the ones that surface in disputes.
These sit alongside provident fund, gratuity and insurance, all of which attach to anyone who counts as a statutory employee in India.
How is maternity leave salary calculated, and who pays it?
Maternity pay is the average daily wage, worked out from gross earnings over the three calendar months before the leave starts, divided by the days actually worked. Basic pay and regular allowances count. Bonus and overtime do not.
Take an employee on ₹60,000 a month, made up of ₹30,000 basic, ₹18,000 HRA and ₹12,000 in allowances. Across 26 paid days that is about ₹2,307 a day. Over 182 days of leave the employer books roughly ₹4.2 lakh, close to $5,000, before provident fund and any voluntary top-up.
Model the full loaded cost, including provident fund, gratuity and insurance, with our employee cost calculator before you sign the offer.
| Situation | Who pays | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Employee above the ESI wage ceiling | Employer | 100% of average daily wage for 26 or 12 weeks |
| Employee covered by ESI (₹21,000 or less) | ESI Corporation | 100% of average daily wages, 26 weeks for childbirth, 12 for adoption or commissioning, 6 after miscarriage |
| ESI member using a non-ESI hospital | ESI Corporation | Confinement expenses of ₹7,500, raised from ₹5,000 |
| First live birth, eligible women (PMMVY) | Central government | ₹5,000 in two instalments |
| Second child who is a girl (PMMVY) | Central government | ₹6,000 in a single instalment after birth |
The Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana tops up rather than replaces anything you owe, and it is aimed mainly at the unorganised sector. The amounts were restructured under Mission Shakti, so older policy drafts quoting ₹6,000 in three instalments for a first birth are out of date.
For the employer, maternity pay is a deductible business expense. For the employee, it is salary income and taxed as such. Keeping the payroll run unbroken through the leave is the part teams get wrong, and the mechanics are in our guide to India payroll.
Not sure who pays for the 26 weeks on your team?
We run maternity compliance, ESI handling and salary continuity for global companies hiring in India.
What notice and documents does a maternity leave request need?
She must give written notice claiming maternity benefit and stating the dates she intends to be absent. The absence cannot start earlier than 8 weeks before the expected delivery date. Three documents close the file.
- A written notice stating the claim, the amount due, the absence dates, and the person nominated to receive payment if she dies.
- A medical certificate from a registered practitioner confirming the pregnancy and the expected date of delivery.
- A handover or adoption document in place of the medical certificate, for adoptive and commissioning mothers.
Anything beyond that minimum is your own policy. Earlier notice helps both sides, because it buys time to arrange cover.
Set the expectation at hire rather than at the announcement, which is why it belongs in the India employee onboarding checklist.
How should employers handle a maternity leave request?
Section 62 puts you on a clock the moment she notifies. Seven steps keep the file clean.
- 1. Acknowledge the notice in writing within a couple of working days and confirm whether she gets 26 or 12 weeks, based on surviving children.
- 2. Verify the 80 days and collect the medical certificate or handover document.
- 3. Agree the split between pre-delivery and post-delivery leave and lock the dates in the leave calendar.
- 4. Fix the average daily wage and tell finance to keep payroll running. If she is ESI-covered you still process the record, even though ESIC pays.
- 5. Confirm the crèche or the crèche allowance if your India headcount is 50 or more. Have it ready before she returns, not after.
- 6. Open the return-to-work conversation about four weeks before the leave ends. Cover work from home under Section 60(5), a phased return and nursing breaks, and put any flexibility in writing.
- 7. Keep the maternity register, notice, certificate, payment records and return confirmation on file for at least three years, ready for the Inspector-cum-Facilitator.
Follow all seven and an inspection becomes a document check rather than an argument.
Hiring through a partner moves this workflow off your desk entirely, and the handoffs are mapped in our walkthrough of EOR onboarding in India.
How do state rules change maternity compliance?
The central Code sets the floor. State Shops and Establishments Acts add nursing-break detail, working-hour caps, night-shift safeguards and sometimes stronger crèche or transport rules. Compliance follows where the employee physically works, not where your headquarters sits.
| State | What it adds on top of the central Code |
|---|---|
| Maharashtra | Crèche at 50+ workers, with shared crèches allowed within 1 km. Night shifts after 9:30 PM need written consent and employer transport. Caps of 9 hours a day and 48 a week. |
| Karnataka | Night shifts allowed in shops, commercial and IT firms with written consent, GPS-tracked transport and rotation scheduling. Maternity protections override any night-shift permission. |
| Tamil Nadu | Night work permitted by notification with prescribed safeguards. Handloom and beedi units with 50+ women must run crèches for children under 6. |
| Delhi | No enhanced overlay. The Shops and Establishments Act governs hours, weekly offs and leave accrual. |
| Telangana | Night work permitted with safeguards. Standard nursing breaks, no enhanced overlay on duration. |
For a team spread across three or four states, build the local layer in from day one using our holiday and leave policy tool.
Working-hour limits sit directly beside leave entitlement in every one of those state Acts, which is why the overtime rules in India belong in the same policy review.
What are the penalties for getting maternity leave wrong?
Section 133 raised the stakes sharply. Under the 1961 Act the maximum fine was ₹5,000. Officers can now be personally liable, and repeat offences carry prison time.
| Offence | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Failure to provide maternity benefit, first offence | Up to 6 months imprisonment, a fine up to ₹50,000, or both |
| Second or subsequent offence | 2 to 3 years imprisonment and a fine up to ₹3,00,000 |
| Dismissing, discharging or demoting a woman in contravention | Up to 6 months imprisonment and a fine up to ₹50,000 |
| Officer in charge when the offence happened | Personally liable under Section 135, including directors and company secretaries |
Enforcement runs through the Inspector-cum-Facilitator under Section 14, who can enter the establishment and examine records. Only the aggrieved woman or the Inspector can take the matter to a competent court under Section 136. This is general guidance, so take advice on your own facts.
The registers and filings that surround all of this are covered in our guide to statutory compliance in HR.
Foreign-owned entities pick up a few extra reporting habits, set out in labour law in India for foreign companies.
Where the law and daily practice still diverge
India's framework is strong on paper. Culture and enforcement lag it. Plan for the gap instead of being surprised by it. Four patterns come up again and again.
- Cost anxiety at smaller employers. Because the employer funds most of the bill, some SMEs quietly avoid hiring women of childbearing age. Research on the 2017 expansion found the reform made women more expensive to employ, with knock-on effects on hiring.
- Career drift after the return. Survey work reported by Business Standard found around three in four women describe a setback of one to two years after returning, and two in five say their pay was affected.
- Awareness gaps. Women in smaller towns and the unorganised sector often do not know what they are owed, so benefits go unclaimed.
- Uneven enforcement. Grievance redressal is slow enough that many women never raise a complaint at all.
None of that is a reason to under-provide. It is a reason to communicate the policy loudly and make the return work.
"This post is not about my accolades, it is about the #Discrimination or #MaternityTax that women tend to pay at workplaces, just because they reproduce."
That is from a marketing leader's LinkedIn post about being screened out of a CMO shortlist after 11 years of experience, reported by Business Today. It went viral because it was recognisable, not because it was rare.
"An urban Indian woman spends five hours on household chores every day, while an urban man spends twenty-nine minutes on housework!"
Shrayana Bhattacharya writes that in Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh. It explains why a return-to-work plan matters as much as the leave itself. The 26 weeks end. The load at home does not.
There is also a credibility problem. A long-running r/india thread titled "Does India really provide 24 or more weeks in paid maternity leave?" still ranks on page one in the United States, which tells you how much doubt sits around a number that has been law since 2017.
The trend line is better than the anecdotes. Female labour force participation for ages 15 and above reached 41.7% in 2023-24, up from 23.3% in 2017-18, on Periodic Labour Force Survey data. Employers who handle maternity well are hiring into a widening pool.
Retention is where a good policy pays for itself, and the sector-level numbers are in our note on the attrition rate in India.
Workplace-safety obligations run alongside maternity protection, so it is worth checking whether your partner genuinely handles POSH and the Shops and Establishments Act.
What must you update in your HR policy after the 2026 changes?
Most India policies written before November 2025 still name the 1961 Act as the governing statute. Six edits bring a template current.
- Replace "Maternity Benefit Act, 1961" with "Chapter VI of the Code on Social Security, 2020" as the governing law.
- Delete the three-month age cap on adoption leave. Twelve weeks now applies whatever the child's age at handover.
- Add the Section 65 clause for up to one month of extra paid leave for pregnancy-related illness.
- Set the medical bonus at ₹3,500 under Section 64. Older templates still quote ₹1,000 or ₹2,500.
- Refresh the penalty language to the Section 133 ceilings of ₹50,000 and ₹3,00,000.
- Record the three-year retention rule for the maternity register, notices, certificates and payment records.
Ship the first four this month. The rest can ride your next quarterly review, along with a 30-minute refresher for line managers, which closes most of the gap between what a policy says and what a manager does.
The same review is a sensible moment to align the wider India HR policies pack, since several clauses cross-reference each other.
The maternity change did not arrive on its own either, and the rest of the picture is in our explainer on the four new labour codes.
If you are building the compliance calendar from scratch, our guide to HR compliance in India lists the deadlines that go with it.
How does India compare with other countries?
India's 26 fully paid weeks put it well ahead of the United States and level with the stronger schemes elsewhere on the paid portion. The comparison matters mainly for budgeting.
| Country | Duration | Paid? | Who pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | 26 weeks for the first two children, 12 thereafter | Yes, full salary | Employer, or ESI Corporation |
| United Kingdom | 52 weeks | 39 weeks paid, 90% for the first 6 then a flat rate | Employer, recoverable from government |
| United States | 12 weeks under FMLA | No federal paid leave | Not mandated federally, some states run paid schemes |
| Australia | Paid parental leave plus up to 12 months unpaid | Yes, at the national minimum wage | Government scheme |
A US parent company used to unpaid FMLA leave will underestimate the India line item unless someone flags it early. Twenty-six weeks of full salary is a real number in the headcount plan, not a rounding error.
How Wisemonk keeps your maternity compliance clean
Wisemonk is an India-native Employer of Record. We hire, pay and manage your team in India without you setting up an entity, and maternity compliance is part of the service rather than an add-on.
In practice that means eligibility checks, 26 weeks of uninterrupted salary, ESI and provident fund handling, crèche or allowance compliance, statutory registers kept inspection-ready, and the return-to-work conversation run properly. Our entity, our team and our compliance capability are all in India, which is why the India offering is the one we stand behind.
If you are still weighing options, start with our EOR services in India.
If you already know the shape of the team, the step-by-step is in our guide on how to hire employees in India.
And if your employee wants to see it from her side, share our note on leave and maternity benefits under EOR employment.
What our clients say
Two short examples of what changes once the statutory load moves off an internal HR team.
"Wisemonk is an exceptional product that helps us manage our remote workforce. It has enabled our HR teams to focus more employee welfare rather than worrying about contracts, payments and compliances." - Neeraj S, Chief Executive Officer, on G2
"We had a dedicated account manager who knew our concerns and helped us with all the challenges along the way. Great support to setup our team in India." - Akhil N, Founders Office and Special Projects, on G2
Frequently asked questions
What changed in India's maternity leave law in 2026?
Two changes took effect. The Code on Social Security, 2020 came into force on November 21, 2025, consolidating the 1961 Act into Chapter VI. Then on March 17, 2026, the Supreme Court extended 12-week adoption leave to all adoptive mothers, removing the three-month child-age cap.
Is maternity leave mandatory for private companies in India?
Yes. Chapter VI of the Code on Social Security, 2020 binds all private establishments with 10 or more employees, Indian or foreign-owned. They must provide 26 weeks of fully paid maternity leave for the first two children and 12 weeks thereafter. Crèche facilities are mandatory at 50 or more employees.
How is maternity leave salary calculated in India?
Maternity leave salary is the average daily wage, the gross salary over the three months before leave divided by working days. Basic pay and regular allowances count; bonuses and overtime do not. For ESI-covered staff earning below ₹21,000 per month, the ESI Corporation pays instead of the employer.
Do I get full pay during maternity leave in India?
Yes. Under the Code on Social Security, 2020, eligible employees receive 100% of their average daily wage for the full leave period. The employer pays in most cases, except for ESI-covered employees, where the ESI Corporation pays the benefit directly in the employer's place.
Is there paid paternity or parental leave in India?
Currently India mandates only paid maternity leave under the Code on Social Security, 2020. Paternity leave is not federally required, though some companies offer it voluntarily. The Supreme Court has flagged the need for paternity provisions, so broader parental leave may follow in future policy.
What are the maternity leave rules for small employers or the unorganized sector?
Women at establishments with fewer than 10 employees, or in the unorganized sector, may not be covered under Chapter VI of the Code. Some still receive benefits under employer policy or state schemes like PMMVY, which gives ₹6,000 to eligible women for a first birth.
How does maternity leave affect promotions, bonuses, and benefits in India?
Maternity leave should not affect promotions or bonuses; the employee is treated as if working. Social security contributions and standard benefits continue, since she receives full pay during leave. Dismissing, demoting, or penalizing a woman for taking maternity leave is illegal and carries criminal penalties.
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