Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said male government employees who were single parents were now entitled to child care leave.
The privilege of the leave is for male employees who are divorcees or widowers or are not married and are expected to take up child care as a single parent.
However, the union minister further added that the provision and privilege of the leave will be only for those employees who happen to be a ‘single male parent’. "Single male parent" includes employees who are unmarried or widower or divorcee and may therefore be expected to take up the responsibility of caring for a child single-handedly, said Union minister Jitendra Singh.
Describing it as a path-breaking and progressive reform to bring ease of living for government servants, Mr. Singh said orders regarding the decision were issued some time ago but somehow did not get enough traction in public domain.
The change has been introduced as one of the reforms brought by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Key Highlights:
· Singh mentioned this major relaxation while talking about some of the reforms that have been brought by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) under the Prime Minister Modi government.
· The Union Minister also informed that a government servant on CCL will be able to leave the headquarters with prior approval of the competent authority.
· The employee will also be able to avail Leave Travel Concession (LTC) even if he is on Child Care Leave.
· The minister also mentioned that CCL can be granted at 100% of the leave salary for the first 365 days and 80% of leave salary for the next 365 days.
Based on inputs received over a period of time, he said another welfare measure introduced in this regard is that in case of a disabled child, the condition of availing child care leave up to the age of 22 years of the child has been removed.
Now child care leave can be availed by a government servant for a disabled child of any age, he added.
With the personal intervention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his special emphasis on governance reforms, Singh said, it has been possible to make several out-of-the-box decisions in the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) over the last six years.
The basic purpose behind all these decisions has always been to enable a government employee to contribute to the maximum of his potential, although at the same time there will be no leniency or tolerance towards corruption or non-performance, he said.