How adequate are India's maternity benefit laws in addressing the needs of women in non-traditional/competitive professions such as sport?

India's maternity protection rests on the Maternity Benefit Act, 1961, strengthened by the 2017 Amendment to 26 weeks of paid leave [2]. It is a robust wage-and-job guarantee inside the employer–employee relationship, but only partly adequate for careers such as competitive sport, as the Delhi High Court's recent notice to the Centre, WFI and IOA on a wrestler's plea for a maternity return-to-play framework shows [5].

Where the law is adequate

• Enhanced entitlement: 26 weeks paid leave (up from 12), leave for adopting and commissioning mothers, crèche in establishments with 50 or more employees, and a work-from-home option after leave [2].
• Income and job security: protection against dismissal and loss of wages during absence, applicable across factories, mines, plantations and notified establishments [1].

Where it falls short for competitive professions

• Coverage is employment-based: the Act binds "establishments" and employers [1]. An athlete's link with a National Sports Federation is one of selection and recognition, not employment — so the statute simply does not reach her.
• Wage protection ≠ career protection: sport is ranking-driven and peak-years-bound; paid leave cannot restore lost ranking, seeding, trial eligibility or sponsorship. Global bodies are only now examining ranking support during maternity, as in World Athletics' CARES initiative [4].
• No federation SOPs: absent a written return-to-play policy, responses become ad hoc — Phogat's plea also challenges show-cause notices issued during her comeback [5].
• Same gap elsewhere: self-employed, gig and informal women workers fall outside the Act's organised-sector frame [1].

Thus India's maternity laws are adequate as wage protection but inadequate as career-continuity protection in performance-based professions. The National Sports Governance Act, 2025, which mandates athletes' committees, grievance mechanisms and welfare measures in sports bodies [3], offers a ready statutory hook for a codified maternity and protected-re-entry policy. Extending such tailored guarantees would give real content to Article 15(3) and advance SDG-5 on gender equality.