Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday approved an extension of benefits of Child Care Leave (CCL) to single male service personnel, in line with a recent order of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) extending similar benefits to civilian employees. Singh also approved certain relaxations of CCL provisions to women officers in the defence sector. Presently, CCL is only being granted to women officers in defence forces. Recently, the DoPT has made certain amendments for grant of CCL to civilian employees, whereby the CCL granted to woman employees till now has been extended to single male government servants also. Earlier, only parents of children below or of 22-years with 40 per cent disability could only avail the CCL. Moreover, the minimum period of CCL that can be availed at a time has been reduced to 5-day instead of 15.
