- Related to termination of pregnancy –
A woman can terminate her pregnancy at the discretion of a medical provider upto 20 weeks of gestation period, under certain conditions –
- When continuation of pregnancy is a risk to the life of a pregnant woman or could cause grave injury to her physical or mental health.
- When there is substantial risk that the child, if born, would be seriously handicapped due to physical or mental condition.
- When pregnancy is caused due to rape.
- When pregnancy is caused due to failure of contraceptives used by a married woman.
Related to maternity benefits:
- Woman is entitled to get paid maternity leave from 12-26 weeks and she can also take pre-delivery leave. If the woman has more than two surviving children, the maternity benefits is 12 weeks only.
- There is a provision of creches in the any organization who has 50 or more employees working under them. Women are entitled to visit the creches up to 4 times a day.
- All the cost of paid maternity leave and creches should be managed by the employer alone.
- It is compulsory to the employers to educate women about their maternity leave at the time of appointment.
- Women undergoing a tubectomy (a medical procedure to stop future pregnancies) also get a paid leave of 2 weeks following the operation.
- In case of termination of pregnancy or miscarriage, the law permits women six weeks leave after the procedure.
- An employer cannot dismiss a woman for taking maternity leave and cannot serve a termination notice to a woman on maternity leave which expires before the maternity leave ends.