STATE TIMES NEWS
NEW DELHI: Union Minister, Dr Jitendra Singh on Monday said that during the last 8 years under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a series of governance reforms introduced by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) and other departments under Union Ministry of Personnel like DARPG and Department of Pensions, enabled “ease of working” for women employees and are actually, in a broader sense, huge social reforms aimed at providing women officials an opportunity to perform to the best of their potential with a high level of dignity and self-esteem.
Addressing women officers of Govt of India after releasing a compilation book on major governance reforms related to women employees introduced since 2014, here today, Dr Jitendra said, his Ministry has taken concerted efforts to increase the representation of women in Central Government jobs and to provide them a balance between professional and family life.
The Minister recalled that only three days back, DoPT had taken a historic decision to grant a 60-day special maternity leave for women Central government employees in case of Still Birth or death of an infant within a few days of birth. This was not only a woman-friendly decision, but a humane decision taken with a lot of sensitive precision.
The Minister said, in May this year, family pension rules were relaxed for missing central government employees and the new rule has done away with seven-year mandatory wait and, in all cases, where a government servant covered by NPS goes missing during service, the benefits of family pension will be immediately paid to the family of the missing Government servant.
Referring to the issue of Capacity Building and Empowerment of Women, Dr Jitendra Singh informed that the Institute of Secretariat Training & Management (ISTM) extensively covers topics relating to the women, their empowerment, protection from domestic violence and prevention from sexual offences, in all its major cadre training programmes. It organizes women issue specific training courses also, ranging from two-day to five-day long durations at ISTM and outside. The Minister added that during the last five years, about 800 officers of different grades and positions have been covered in as many as twenty-five (25) courses, which have been organized at ISTM on the topics of, Gender Sensitization, Gender Budgeting, Protection, Prevention and Redress of Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace, and Protection of Women from Domestic Violence.
Dr Jitendra Singh concluded by saying that in the last few years India has graduated from women participation to women led leadership and today they are an equal stakeholder in the nation building. He said, in the next 25 years of Amrit Kaal, women folk will contribute their might in making India a frontline state in 2047 in an enabling milieu and they will confidently assert their rightful place, when India celebrates 100th year of Independence.
