MPSC 2026 Prelims Paper-I · Question 38 of 100

Correct — option (4), '(b) and (c)'. The stem asks which statements are incorrect, and the word is printed in bold precisely because the paper expects candidates to misread it; settle each statement as true or false first, and only then look for the option that lists the false ones. Statement (a) says the Act mandates six weeks of leave after childbirth, and this is correct as a statement of what the Act requires. Section 4 of the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 prohibits an employer from knowingly employing a woman in any establishment during the six weeks immediately following the day of her delivery or miscarriage, and bars the woman from working during that period; six weeks of compulsory absence after childbirth is therefore written into the Act, and the same six-week floor reappears in the proviso that gives twelve weeks of benefit, of which not more than six may precede delivery, to a woman with two or more surviving children. Statement (b) says the Act mandates six weeks before and ten weeks after childbirth. No version of the Act has ever said this. Before the amendment of 2017 the entitlement was twelve weeks in total, of which not more than six could be taken before the expected date of delivery; since the amendment it is twenty-six weeks for a woman with fewer than two surviving children, of which not more than eight may precede the expected date of delivery. Six-before-and-ten-after matches neither, so statement (b) is incorrect. Statement (c) says the Act applies to all establishments without regard to the minimum number of employees. That is wrong: the Act applies to every factory, mine and plantation, including those belonging to Government, and to every shop or establishment in which ten or more persons are employed or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months. The ten-employee threshold is on the face of the statute, so statement (c) is incorrect. Statement (d) says the Act provides maternity and other benefits, which restates its own long title — an Act to regulate the employment of women for certain periods before and after childbirth and to provide for maternity benefit and certain other benefits — and those other benefits are real and enumerated, including medical bonus, nursing breaks and leave for miscarriage or illness arising out of pregnancy. Statement (d) is correct. The incorrect statements are therefore (b) and (c), which is option (4).

• (1)Only (a) — Marks the six-weeks-after-childbirth statement as the incorrect one. It is not: section 4 of the Act expressly forbids the employment of a woman during the six weeks immediately following her delivery or miscarriage, and the same six-week period is the post-delivery portion of the twelve-week benefit available to a woman with two or more surviving children. A candidate may reject statement (a) on the ground that the entitlement after the 2017 amendment is twenty-six weeks and six therefore looks too small, but a statutory minimum is not contradicted by a larger entitlement built on top of it.
• (2)Only (b) — Correctly identifies the arithmetic in statement (b) as wrong, but lets statement (c) pass. The claim that the Act applies to all establishments without regard to the number of employees is squarely contrary to the statute, which extends to factories, mines and plantations and to shops and establishments employing ten or more persons. The ten-employee threshold is one of the most frequently examined features of the Act — and one of the standing criticisms of it, since it leaves the largest part of the female workforce, which is informal and unorganised, outside its reach.
• (3)(a), (b) and (d) — Includes statement (d) among the incorrect ones, which cannot be sustained: 'maternity benefit and certain other benefits' is the wording of the Act's own long title, and the other benefits are specified in the statute — medical bonus where the employer does not provide free pre-natal and post-natal care, leave for miscarriage or medical termination of pregnancy, leave for tubectomy, leave for illness arising out of pregnancy or delivery, and nursing breaks until the child is fifteen months old. The option also wrongly condemns statement (a) while overlooking statement (c), so it inverts the answer at both ends.

The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 does two distinct things, and keeping them apart is what makes the statute easy to remember. First, it regulates employment: section 4 prohibits the employment of a woman during the six weeks immediately following delivery or miscarriage, and entitles a pregnant woman to be relieved of arduous work, work involving long hours of standing, or work likely to interfere with pregnancy in the period before delivery. Second, it confers benefits: paid leave at the rate of the average daily wage, together with a medical bonus, leave for miscarriage, for medical termination of pregnancy, for tubectomy and for illness arising out of pregnancy, and nursing breaks after return to work. Eligibility requires that the woman has actually worked in the establishment for at least eighty days in the twelve months immediately preceding her expected date of delivery, and section 12 protects her against dismissal or discharge during her authorised absence. The scheme is employer-funded rather than contributory, which is the design decision that explains both its generosity and its unintended consequence — the concern, repeatedly raised, that placing the whole cost on the employer discourages the hiring of women of childbearing age.

The Act was substantially rewritten by the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017, which raised the maximum benefit from twelve to twenty-six weeks for a woman with fewer than two surviving children, of which not more than eight weeks may be taken before the expected date of delivery. A woman with two or more surviving children continues to receive twelve weeks, of which not more than six may precede delivery. The amendment also introduced twelve weeks of leave for a commissioning mother and for a mother adopting a child below three months of age, required every establishment with fifty or more employees to provide a crèche facility with four permitted visits a day, allowed an employer to permit work from home after the leave period where the nature of the work makes it possible, and required employers to inform every woman in writing of her entitlements at the time of appointment. The Act is among the enactments consolidated into the Code on Social Security, 2020, which restates maternity benefit in a chapter of its own. Its central limitation is unchanged: it reaches only establishments within its coverage, and therefore only a small proportion of India's working women.

• Coverage: the Act applies to every factory, mine and plantation, including those belonging to Government, and to every shop or establishment in which ten or more persons are employed, or were employed on any day of the preceding twelve months. There is no application to establishments below that threshold.
• Section 4 prohibits an employer from knowingly employing a woman during the six weeks immediately following the day of her delivery or miscarriage, and prohibits the woman from working during that period — a compulsory rest period distinct from the paid benefit.
• Duration of benefit after the 2017 amendment: twenty-six weeks for a woman with fewer than two surviving children, of which not more than eight weeks may precede the expected date of delivery; twelve weeks, of which not more than six may precede delivery, for a woman with two or more surviving children; and twelve weeks for a commissioning mother or a mother adopting a child below three months.
• Eligibility requires at least eighty days of actual work in the establishment during the twelve months immediately preceding the expected date of delivery. Benefit is paid at the rate of the average daily wage, and section 12 bars dismissal or discharge during authorised absence under the Act.
• Other benefits under the Act: medical bonus where the employer does not provide pre-natal and post-natal care free of charge, leave for miscarriage or medical termination of pregnancy, leave following tubectomy, leave for illness arising out of pregnancy or delivery, nursing breaks until the child is fifteen months old, and, since 2017, a crèche facility in establishments with fifty or more employees.

• Reading past a bolded 'incorrect' or 'not'. The paper prints the negation in bold in several questions; a candidate who identifies the true statements correctly and then marks the option that lists them has done all the work and lost the mark.
• Assuming a protective labour law applies universally. Most Indian labour statutes carry an employment threshold — ten or more persons for shops and establishments under this Act — and that threshold is both an examinable fact and the standing criticism of the legislation.
• Treating the pre-2017 and post-2017 positions as interchangeable. Twelve weeks with not more than six before delivery was the old rule; twenty-six weeks with not more than eight before delivery is the current one for a woman with fewer than two surviving children, and questions are set on both.

Social legislation is examined in four shapes: the year and short title of the Act; its coverage threshold; the quantum of a benefit or the period of a protection; and the amendment, asking what changed and when. MPSC tends to ask the second and third together, as here, and to construct wrong statements by altering a number — six weeks becomes ten, ten employees becomes none. The defence is a compact note for each major welfare statute recording the year, the establishments covered with any numerical threshold, the principal entitlement with its duration, two or three ancillary benefits, and the date and content of the latest amendment. Because so many of these questions turn on a single figure, it is worth revising the numbers separately from the concepts.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 as amended in 2017, what is the maximum period of maternity benefit available to a woman with fewer than two surviving children ?

  • (a)12 weeks, of which not more than 6 weeks may precede the expected date of delivery
  • (b)16 weeks, of which not more than 6 weeks may precede the expected date of delivery
  • (c)26 weeks, of which not more than 8 weeks may precede the expected date of delivery
  • (d)26 weeks, all of which must be taken after delivery

  Answer(c) 26 weeks, of which not more than 8 weeks may precede the expected date of delivery. The 2017 amendment raised the entitlement from the earlier twelve weeks with a six-week pre-delivery cap, which is the position that continues to apply to a woman who already has two or more surviving children.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under the Maternity Benefit Act as amended in 2017, a crèche facility must be provided by every establishment having at least how many employees ?

  • (a)10
  • (b)20
  • (c)30
  • (d)50

  Answer(d) 50 — establishments with fifty or more employees must provide a crèche facility, and a woman is allowed four visits to the crèche during the day, including her rest interval. The figure of ten is the threshold for the Act's own application to shops and establishments, which is why the two numbers are easily confused.