Examine the adequacy of statutory maternity protections in India in ensuring both employment continuity and career progression for women.

Article 42 directs the State to secure just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief. India's statutory framework has largely delivered on protecting a woman's job; whether it protects her career remains contested, as the Delhi High Court's August 2026 ruling shows.

Adequacy on employment continuity

• Section 12, Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 makes it unlawful to discharge or dismiss a woman during, or on account of, pregnancy-related absence, with penal backing under Section 21 [1].
• The Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 raised paid leave from 12 to 26 weeks for the first two children, mandated crèches in establishments with 50+ employees, and permitted work-from-home [2].
• Continuity is carried forward into Section 68, Code on Social Security, 2020 ("dismissal for absence during pregnancy"), preserving the guarantee through labour codification [3].

Inadequacy on career progression

• The statute speaks of dismissal and wages, not of designation, responsibilities or promotion prospects — leaving room for the "maternity penalty" of quiet sidelining.
• The Delhi High Court (Justice Sachin Datta, 31 August 2026) read Section 12 purposively: a returning woman may resume her previous position, protected in role, managerial authority and advancement, and directed the Centre to frame safeguards [4] — an admission of policy vacuum, since relief came through litigation, not statutory design.

Structural limitations

• Coverage is confined to notified establishments; the informal sector, where most women work, stays outside enforcement.
• The employer-borne cost of 26 weeks creates a hiring disincentive against women.
• Absence of statutory paternity/parental leave in the private sector keeps care burdens gendered; FLFPR, though risen from 23.3% (2017-18) to 41.7% (2023-24), reflects weak retention in formal jobs [5].

Statutory maternity protection is thus adequate in shielding employment but inadequate in shielding careers. Codifying an "equivalent position" standard, shared or insurance-based funding, and gender-neutral parental leave under the Social Security Code would convert a right to return into a right to progress — realising Article 42 and SDG 5's promise of substantive workplace equality.