New Delhi: Male government employees raising a child alone are now entitled to child care leave (CCL), Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Monday.
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, said Singh, who is the Minister of State (Personnel).
Jitendra Singh said the orders regarding this had been issued quite some time back but somehow did not receive enough circulation in the public.
The Union Minister also informed that an employee on Child Care Leave may now leave the head quarter with the prior approval of Competent Authority.
“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.
Dr Jitendra Singh further 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 and now Child Care Leave can be availed by a government servant for a disabled child of any age.
He added that it has been possible to make several out-of-box decisions in the DoPT over the last six years.
“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,” he said.
