Male government employees raising a child alone are now entitled to child care leave (CCL), Union Minister Jitendra Singh said Monday. This will be treated as an “earned leave”, said the Minister of State (Personnel).
Male govt employees now entitled for child care leave
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An employee on the said leave may now leave the headquarters with the prior approval of the competent authority, the minister said.
According to the Union Minister, the leave could be granted at 100 per cent of leave salary for the first 365 days and 80 per cent of leave salary for the next 365 days. In addition, the ministry announced that the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) might be availed by the employee even if he was on child care leave, he added.
Another welfare measure introduced in this regard is that in case of a disabled child, the condition that child care leave can be availed by the parents only till the child is 22 years of age has been removed. This meant that now, child care leave could be availed by a government servant for a disabled child of any age, said the minister.
‘Single male parent’ includes unmarried employees, widowers and divorcees, who may be expected to take up the responsibility of caring for a child single-handedly, said Singh, furthering that the orders regarding this decision were issued some time ago but somehow did not get enough traction in the public domain.
Congratulating Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Minister of State (Personnel)- Jitendra Singh, Union Minister Smriti Irani called this a landmark step by DoPT towards reinforcing the government’s commitment towards gender equality.
Decision to grant Child Care Leave to single male parent working in Government of India is a landmark measure by DoPT. My heartiest congratulations to PM @narendramodi Ji & @DrJitendraSingh Ji for reinforcing GOI’s commitment towards gender equality. https://t.co/316dZcIu8T
— Smriti Z Irani (@smritiirani) October 27, 2020
Meanwhile, attributing these out-of-the-box decisions in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) to PM Narendra Modi, Singh said that the aim behind these measures was to bring ease-of-living for government servants, enabling them to contribute to the maximum of their potential. Although, at the same time there would be no leniency or tolerance towards corruption or non-performance, he added.
