Women have adorned high offices~ from the President of India to the Leader of the Opposition. Yet, our women are exposed to numerous social issues. The government at the Centre is striving for the upliftment of women by introducing many schemes and programmes. Here, in Goa, as soon as Manohar Parrikar became the Chief Minister, he launched many schemes for women. We do appreciate the programmes.
Our CM is implementing schemes for the women. On the contrary, his own officer whom he evidently trusts is trying to break the government norms.
The Government of India has introduced child care leave (CCL) in favour of working mothers of various government departments. A working mother of two surviving children till the age of 18 can avail CCL of 730 days for rearing or for looking after any of their needs such as education, sickness, etc. She should get the leave sanctioned from a competent authority.
Women working in various State government departments have availed of this facility. However, the officer has repressed the women staff members in availing this leave. The Childcare leave is granted only to those women staff members who are on maternity leave, but when the rule implies that it can be availed of to look after children’s various other needs like education and sickness, why are the women staff members deprived of this leave? Now, a circular has been circulated to all the staff members employed in a department that the director of the department wants to frame rules so that leave can be granted without hampering the working environment of the department.
It makes me wonder how the work environment will get affected when there is excess staff employed in the department. The director of the department has no business to interfere in the welfare of the women, which is permitted by the government. The government also grants six months maternity leave to its women employees. Will the director in question prevent the women employees from availing this leave too?
If granting such leaves to the women employees is such a painful task, then I suggest he ought to recruit only male staff members.
Altough the department is striving to conserve art and culture, there are many issues which can force one to say that the department is uncultured. If women are restricted from availing the benefits which are implemented for them by the Centre, then on what grounds this Directorate acquired ISO 9001:2008 recognition? Child care leave is the right of working women.
