Employees’ State Insurance (Central) Amendment Rules, 2016, proposes to include the following changes in the Employees’ State Insurance (Central) Rules, 1950:
i) The definition of ‘insured woman’. “Insured woman” means a woman who is or was an employee in respect of whom contribution is or was payable under the Employees’ State Insurance Act and who is by reason thereof, entitled to any of the benefits provided under the said Act and shall include: (1) a commissioning mother who, as biological mother, wishes to have a child and prefers to have an embryo implanted in any other woman; and (2) a woman who legally adopts a child of up to three months of age.
ii) The number of weeks for maternity benefit is to be increased from 12 to 26 weeks.