India will be able to ratify two International Labour Organisation conventions related to maternity benefits and abolition of child labour with new child labour laws. Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya said this in New Delhi today while briefing media on the Child Labour Amendment Act. The Minister said since the Act prohibits employment of children up to 14 years of age, the ILO conventions 138 and 182 will be ratified.<br/><br/>ILO's convention no 183 provides for 14 weeks of maternity benefit to women. The government is in the process of increasing maternity leave to 26 weeks from existing 14 week under the Maternity Benefit Act.<br/><br/>Convention No 138 aims at abolition of child labour.<br/><br/>Mr Dattatreya said the new law is much better as compared to the original Child Labour Act of 1986. The minister's comments came after certain organisations raised doubts that the Amendment Act allows employment of children below 14 years in family enterprises, adversely impacting their schooling. Mr Dattatreya clarified that there cannot be any employee and employer relationship in case the worker's age is below 14 years. He explained that the new law only provides for help by children up to the age of 14 years in family enterprise after school hours. <br/><br/>He also said that while formulating rules for the implementation of this Act, the government will ensure that none of its provisions are misused.