Even as central government employees are having to do with less money as their dearness allowance is not coming in at the new rates, there are other benefits that are definitely being provided and should be most welcome. A number of new steps have been announced yesterday that will go a long way in making employees feel much more secure and there is a salary benefit too. Basic purpose behind all these big decisions in favour of central government employees has been to enable them to contribute to the maximum of their potential, although at the same time there will be no leniency or tolerance toward corruption or non-performance, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said. 

Centre has entitled male employees of the government to Child Care Leave (CCL) abd this was announced by none other than Minister Singh yesterday. It is a big reform move ordered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government.

Union Minister Singh said that the provision and privilege of CCL will be available only for those male employees who happen to be “single male parent”, which may include male employees who are widowers or divorcees or even unmarried and may therefore, be expected to take up the responsibility of child care as a single-handed parent.

Singh termed this as a path-breaking and progressive reform to bring ease of living for government servants. The minister revealed that the actual orders regarding this had been issued quite some time back but somehow did not receive enough circulation in the public. However, taking the benefit much further, a new relaxation to this provision has been announced by the minister who said that an employee on CCL may now leave the head quarters with the prior approval of Competent Authority.

Not just that, Leave Travel Concession (LTC) may be availed by the employee even if he is on Child Care Leave. How can this be done? Elaborating further, the Minister informed that CCL 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. 

Based on the inputs over a period of time, Singh said, another welfare measure introduced in this regard is that in case of a disabled child, the condition of availing CCL up to the age of 22 years of the child has been removed and now Child Care Leave can be availed by a government servant for a disabled child of any age.

With the personal intervention and indulgence of Prime Minister and his special emphasis on governance reforms, the minister said, it has been possible to make several out-of-box decisions in the DoPT over the last six years