Mines Maternity Benefit Act, 1941

This 1941 Act regulates when women can work in mines around childbirth and requires mine owners to pay them maternity benefits. Section 3 bans a mine owner or manager from employing a woman, and bans a woman from working, in any mine during the six weeks following delivery of a child. For women who work below ground specifically, Section 3(2) adds tighter restrictions: they cannot be employed underground if likely to deliver within ten weeks, if they delivered within the preceding twenty-six weeks, and even after that, they are limited to no more than four hours a day underground during a further ten-week window unless a creche is provided.

Section 4 gives a pregnant woman the right to take leave from work once she gives the prescribed notice to the mine manager that she expects to deliver soon (within one and a half months for surface workers, or ten weeks for underground workers), and the manager can require a medical exam to verify the pregnancy before granting leave. Section 5 is the core benefit entitlement: a woman continuously employed for at least six months before delivery is entitled to maternity payments — the extract text specifies these were originally set at twelve annas a day for six weeks before and six weeks after delivery for general workers, or six rupees a week for ten weeks before and six weeks after delivery for underground workers, though these old currency-denominated figures have since likely been superseded by amendments not shown in this extract. Section 6 allows an additional bonus of up to three rupees if the woman used a qualified midwife.

Section 10 protects a woman from being dismissed during or because of her maternity leave, and even if she is dismissed within six months before delivery without sufficient cause, she does not lose her right to the benefit, as decided by the Chief Inspector. Section 11 lets the Chief Inspector or an Inspector order payment of a wrongfully withheld benefit. Sections 12 and 13 set penalties for violations: a woman working in contravention of the Act can be fined up to ten rupees and forfeits any unpaid benefit; an owner or manager who breaches the Act without a specific penalty elsewhere is fined up to five hundred rupees, part of which a court can direct toward compensating the affected woman.

Because this Act dates to 1941 and its currency figures (annas, small rupee amounts) clearly reflect that era's monetary values, and later mines-sector and maternity legislation may have superseded parts of it, readers should treat the specific rupee amounts in the extract as historical and check the current official text and any newer maternity-benefit laws before relying on exact figures.