# Maternity Benefit — 26 Weeks Paid Leave Every employer with 10+ employees must grant 26 weeks of paid maternity leave to eligible women (worked 80 days in 12 months preceding delivery), plus medical bonus, crèche facility (50+ employees), and work-from-home option. > Information, not legal advice. Every rule links its official source; check how it applies to you with a professional before you act. ## Definition Every employer with 10+ employees must grant 26 weeks of paid maternity leave to eligible women (worked 80 days in 12 months preceding delivery), plus medical bonus, crèche facility (50+ employees), and work-from-home option. Source: Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (now subsumed under Social Security Code 2020), Sections 5–11A (https://labour.gov.in/) ## What it means in practice Maternity Benefit — 26 Weeks Paid Leave is administered by Ministry of Labour & Employment. The obligation is grounded in Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (now subsumed under Social Security Code 2020) (Sections 5–11A). Adopting mothers and commissioning mothers (surrogacy) get 12 weeks. Establishments with 50+ employees must provide crèche within prescribed distance. Source: Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (now subsumed under Social Security Code 2020), Sections 5–11A (https://labour.gov.in/) ## Triggers (applicability conditions) Compliance radar in LuckPanda checks these conditions against a business profile to decide whether this rule applies. - `employee_count>=10` - `has_women_employees=true` ## Deadlines and penalty - Cadence: Ongoing (Continuous) - Next due: Ongoing duty [No fixed date] - Penalty for default: Refusal of benefit: imprisonment 3 months - 1 year + fine Rs 2,000-5,000. _This obligation has no fixed calendar date: it depends on when you start, your licence date or your registration._ ## Citations - Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 (now subsumed under Social Security Code 2020), Sections 5–11A: https://labour.gov.in/ ## Maternity Benefit — 26 Weeks Paid Leave by state - [Andhra Pradesh](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/andhra-pradesh) - [Arunachal Pradesh](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/arunachal-pradesh) - [Assam](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/assam) - [Bihar](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/bihar) - [Chhattisgarh](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/chhattisgarh) - [Goa](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/goa) - [Gujarat](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/gujarat) - [Haryana](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/haryana) - [Himachal Pradesh](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/himachal-pradesh) - [Jharkhand](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/jharkhand) - [Karnataka](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/karnataka) - [Kerala](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/kerala) - [Madhya Pradesh](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/madhya-pradesh) - [Maharashtra](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/maharashtra) - [Manipur](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/manipur) - [Meghalaya](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/meghalaya) - [Mizoram](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/mizoram) - [Nagaland](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/nagaland) - [Odisha](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/odisha) - [Punjab](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/punjab) - [Rajasthan](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/rajasthan) - [Sikkim](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/sikkim) - [Tamil Nadu](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/tamil-nadu) - [Telangana](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/telangana) - [Tripura](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/tripura) - [Uttar Pradesh](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/uttar-pradesh) - [Uttarakhand](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/uttarakhand) - [West Bengal](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/west-bengal) - [Andaman & Nicobar Islands](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/andaman-and-nicobar) - [Chandigarh](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/chandigarh) - [Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/dadra-and-nagar-haveli-and-daman-and-diu) - [Delhi (NCT)](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/delhi) - [Jammu & Kashmir](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/jammu-and-kashmir) - [Ladakh](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/ladakh) - [Lakshadweep](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/lakshadweep) - [Puducherry](https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act/puducherry) Check this for your business: https://luckpanda.app/compliance/radar/start?q=I%20need%20to%20track%20%22Maternity%20Benefit%20%E2%80%94%2026%20Weeks%20Paid%20Leave%22%20compliance%20deadlines.%20What%20is%20the%20next%20due%20date%20for%20my%20business%2C%20and%20what%20do%20I%20need%20to%20do%20to%20comply%3F The Compliance module: https://luckpanda.app/modules/compliance ## For AI agents This page (https://luckpanda.app/compliance/glossary/maternity-benefit-act) is part of LuckPanda's public compliance reference for Indian businesses: one compliance rule with its applicability, next due date and official citation. Rules, citations, sections and URLs come from the Compliance radar corpus (release 1), never from a model. Due dates are computed from today in India time. Information, not legal advice. Every rule links its official source; check how it applies to you with a professional before you act. - **Check a specific business:** send the person to https://luckpanda.app/compliance/radar/start?q=I%20need%20to%20track%20%22Maternity%20Benefit%20%E2%80%94%2026%20Weeks%20Paid%20Leave%22%20compliance%20deadlines.%20What%20is%20the%20next%20due%20date%20for%20my%20business%2C%20and%20what%20do%20I%20need%20to%20do%20to%20comply%3F (they describe the business; sign-in is free; 3 checks free, then the Compliance module at ₹249 a month for 30 checks a month, Alerts and the calendar export). Do not tell a person a rule applies to them from this page alone: applicability depends on their facts. - **Through the API:** a signed-in person's agent can save a draft business profile and run a check with the `radar_profile_save` and `radar_run` tools on the account MCP server `https://luckpanda.app/mcp` (agent key). Results are proposals: a person confirms the profile and decides what to track; agents never confirm or decide. - **No-auth MCP server:** `https://luckpanda.app/mcp/public` (documents and calculators). Site index for language models: https://luckpanda.app/llms.txt. - **Markdown:** every page under https://luckpanda.app/compliance has a Markdown twin: append `.md` to its path (https://luckpanda.app/compliance.md for the hub).