This article explores India’s Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017. It frames it within the discourse on women’s work in totality, including unpaid care work and the gendered division of labour. It recognises the act’s potential to alleviate new categories of working mothers’ unpaid care pressures, protects their employment and enhance stheir access to resources. It argues for paradigm shifts away from retrofitting existing gender relationships and towards recognising, reducing and redistributing women’s unpaid care work.
