Sikkim government employees to get 12-month maternity leave and 1-month paternity leave
Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang said this while addressing the annual general meeting of the Sikkim State Civil Service Officers' Association (SSCSOA).
At the annual general meeting of the Sikkim State Civil Service Officers’ Association, the Sikkim Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang announced that the Sikkim state employees will now get 12-month long maternity leave and 1-month long paternity leave. Singh also said that changes will be made in the service rules to provide the benefit. Adding that details of the benefit will be notified soon, the Chief Minister said that the move will help the government employees to take better care of their children and families.
The Indian Maternity Benefit Act of 1961 stipulates that new mothers are entitled to take six months or 26 weeks of paid leave for their first two children. For each subsequent child, the mother can take three months or 12 weeks of leave, which is also fully paid for by the employer.
The Chief Minister said that the officers are the backbone of the state administration, contributing significantly to the growth and development of Sikkim and its people, as per a PTI report. He added that there has been a significant focus on streamlining the promotion process for civil services officers, leading to an increase in the number of promotions.
The state of Sikkim has the lowest population in India of 6.32 lakhs and the government of Sikkim has been considering policies to boost its population. Earlier, an official notification said that in order to boost the population of indigenous communities in Sikkim, the state government has decided to provide advance and additional increments to its employees having two or three children with retrospective effect from January 1 this year.
The state government employees possessing Sikkim Subject Certificate/Certificate of Identification shall get one advanced increment for having two surviving children, the Department of Personnel Secretary Rinzing Chewang Bhutia said in a notification issued on May 10, PTI said in a report.
Those employees having three surviving children shall get one additional increment, he said, adding anyone of the spouses can claim for advance increment on mutual understanding. The scheme shall be effective from January 1, 2023 and only those employees whose second and third child is born on or after January 1, 2023, shall be eligible for the scheme, Bhutia said.
