'Govt employees who are single-male parents entitled to child care leave': Centre

In a big move, the Centre on Tuesday announced that government employees, who were 'single-male parents', would also be entitled to paid Child Care Leave (CCL). In an official statement, Union Minister Jitendra Singh announced that the reforms to allow single-male parents to take CCL had been introduced by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) and that the provisions would be extended to all single-male parents who were widowers, divorcees or even unmarried. Full leave salary would be granted to the male employee for the first 365 days, followed by 80 per cent of the leave salary for the consecutive 365 days under these provisions. 

"While briefing about some of the major reforms brought by Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) under the Modi government, Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said today that the male employees of the government are also now entitled to Child Care Leave," Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said in a release. 

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Full leave salary to be granted 

Jitendra Singh added that even if an employee was on CCL, he would still be eligible to apply for Leave Travel Concession (LTC). "In addition, the Leave Travel Concession (LTC) may be availed by the employee even if he is on Child Care Leave. Elaborating further, he informed that Child Care Leave can 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," the release said. 

Another provision that has been introduced is for government employees with disabled children. In this regard, the age limit for CCL for parents with disabled children has now been removed. Earlier parents could only apply for this leave if they had a special needs child below the age of 22 years. Child Care Leave can now be availed by a government servant for a disabled child of any age. 

"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 toward corruption or non-performance," said the Union Minister. 

The Union Minister added that while these reforms had been introduced a while ago, they had somehow not received enough public awareness. 

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(With Agency Inputs)