MINES MATERNITY BENEFIT (AMENDMENT) BILL 275
underground for more than four hours at any time even if there is a creche. These are the changes made by the Select Committee with regard to the period of prohibition on work underground.
Coming to the question of maternity benefits to be paid to a woman working underground, the Select Committee has made the following changes; Originally the Bill had laid down two conditions which a woman working underground was required to satisfy before she became entitled to maternity benefit. Those conditions were, firstly, a minimum period of work extending to six months in a mine before confinement, and the second condition was minimum of 90 days work underground during such period of six months. The Select Committee has removed the first condition, namely the requisite period of six months of service in a mine, so that under the amended Bill all that a woman need do is to satisfy the condition of having worked for ninety days underground within the period of six months prior to delivery and she becomes entitled to maternity benefit.
The Select Committee has also made certain amendments with regard to the period of benefit. In the original Bill, the period of benefit was ten weeks before confinement and four weeks after confinement. The select Committee has changed the period of benefit after confinement from four weeks to six weeks. Siimilarly changes have been made in the amount of benefit. Originally the amount of benefit was eight annas per day. The select Committee has changed it to six rupees a week, which is a little less than fourteen annas a day. Then the whole of the period of benefit is now declared to be a period of authorised leave, so that during this period an employer is not entitled to dismiss a woman who comes under the present Bill.
Another important provision made by the Select Committee is to require that the medical examination of a woman entitled to benefit shall be by a woman doctor if the woman demands it, a provision which did not exist in the original Bill. I might also draw the attention of the House to the fact that during this period of thirty-six weeks of prohibition on work underground, a woman is free to work otherwise than on work underground during a period of thirty-two weeks and supplement her earnings, which was not provided in the original Bill. The only period during which she will not be free to work is four weeks after delivery. So that under the Amendment Bill, a woman is not only