PIB – August 10 , 2019


GS- 2 Paper

Topic covered- Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Child Care Leave (CCL)

Context

Raksha Mantri approves extension of benefits of Child Care Leave to single male service personnel.

Child Care Leave to Defence Personnel

  • Defence Minister has approved the extension of benefits of Child Care Leave (CCL) to single male service personnel.
  • Certain relaxations of CCL provisions in case of women officers of defence forces also have been approved.
  • Single male service personnel and women officers of defence forces will be able to avail CCL in respect of child with 40% disability without any restriction of age limit of the child.
  • The minimum period of CCL that can be availed in each spell has been reduced to five days from the earlier limit of 15 days.

Child Care Leave to civilian employees

  • DoPT has made certain amendments for grant of CCL to civilian employee.
  • It extended the benefit to single male government servants as well.
  • The age limit of 22 years prescribed earlier in the case of a child with 40% disability has been removed for the purpose of availing CCL.
  • The minimum period of CCL that can be availed at a time has been reduced to 5 days instead of 15.

Maternity Leave Incentive Scheme

  • The Maternity Benefit Act, 1961 applies to establishments employing 10 or more than 10 persons in Factories, Mines, Plantation, Shops & Establishments and other entities.
  • The object of this Act is to regulate the employment of women in certain establishments for certain period before and after child birth and to provide maternity benefit and certain other benefits.
  • The Act was amended through the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017,
  • It has increased the paid maternity leave to women employees from 12 weeks to 26 weeks.
  • The Ministry of Labour & Employment has been working on an incentive scheme wherein 7 weeks’ wages would be reimbursed to employers.
  • The reimbursement would be given to those employers who employ women workers with wage ceiling upto Rs. 15000/- and provide the maternity benefit of 26 weeks paid leave, subject to certain conditions.

Major Impact

  • The proposed Scheme, after implementation shall ensure the women in this country an equal access to employment and other approved benefits along with adequate safety and secure environment.
  • The women shall continue to bear the major share of household work as well as child care.
  • The work places will be more and more responsive to the family needs of the working women.

GS- 2 Paper

Topics coveredFunctions and responsibilities of the Union and the States, issues and challenges pertaining to the federal structure, devolution of powers and finances up to local levels and challenges therein.

Code of Conduct for MPs and MLAs

Context

The Vice President of India and the Chairman, Rajya Sabha has called upon all political parties to incorporate a code of conduct for people’s representatives, including MPs and MLAs, in their election manifestos.

About the Code of Conduct for MPs and MLAs

A code for Union ministers was adopted in 1964.

The state governments were advised to adopt Code of Conduct for MLAs.

Code of Conduct for MPs and MLAs has been a longstanding concern. However the progress has been slow and uneven.

A Code of Conduct for members of Rajya Sabha has been in force since 2005.

There is no such code for Lok Sabha.

Need a Code of Conduct for MPs and MLAs

  • Parliamentary democracy was all about ensuring governance through accountability to the people.
  • “Legislative, Deliberative and Accountability” the three important functions of legislatures”.
  • Parliamentarians are supposed to make necessary legislations for the betterment of the country and the people, take up and deliberate on issues of public importance and ensure the accountability of the government of the day.
  • Code of Conduct is needed for members to discuss, debate and decide and not resort to disruptions and obstructions in Parliament and Legislatures as people were becoming restless over such behaviour.
  • The tendency of the opposition parties to boycott the legislature in some states, while in certain other instances the opposition was sent out.
  • In some states, the assembly was meeting for very few days, while there was continuous disruption in some others.
  • There is a feeling among the people that the level of public discourse is going down.
  • The ruling and the opposition parties should interact more frequently to ensure smooth conduct of both Parliament and legislatures.
  • Therefore, to ensure civility in political speeches and expressions, establishing code of conduct for politicians is mandatory.

Way forward

  • To ensure that people do not lose faith in political processes and institutions, there is a need for political parties to “evolve a consensus on the code of conduct for their members, both inside the legislature and out of it.
  • There’s a lot more that the Election Commission ought to do to make it difficult for the errant politicians.
  • It should direct political parties to withdraw such candidates.
  • Stronger actions such as derecognizing political parties and other powers need to be exercised for the larger interest of the democracy.
  • The leadership and MPs of all political parties should appreciate the significance of functional Parliament and would maintain the positive momentum of the just concluded session.

For Prelims-

Women Transforming India (WTI) Awards

Context

NITI Aayog launches Fourth Edition of Women Transforming India Awards.

About WTI Awards

  • NITI Aayog has launched the Fourth Edition of Women Transforming India (WTI) Awards.
  • The awards has been launched in collaboration with the United Nations in New Delhi.
  • For WTI-2019 awards WhatsApp , a messaging platform, has collaborated with NITI Aayog.
  • The theme of the Women Transforming India- 2019 awards is Women and Entrepreneurship.
  • WTI awards were launched by NITI Aayog and the United Nations in India in 2016.
  • Its objective was to recognize the women entrepreneurs, who are breaking the glass ceiling and challenging stereotypes, through businesses, enterprises and innovative initiatives.
  • It is to honour women who are flag bearers of the next wave of business innovations and connect with potential business opportunities, through NITI Aayog’s Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP).

Women Entrepreneurship Platform (WEP)

  • WEP is one of its kind facilitation platform.
  • It enables convergence of multiple stakeholders on a single platform.
  • It works in collaboration with these stakeholders to bridge the gap in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
  • It hosts relevant information about several schemes and partner organizations on WEP website to connect women entrepreneurs with relevant partners.
  • It was established under the leadership of Ms. Anna Roy, Sr. Adviser of NITI Aayog.
  • WEP focuses on both reaching out to the community through online means as well as increasing interaction of stakeholders with grass root women entrepreneur community through offline activities so that the benefits can reach the bottom-most of the pyramid.
  • WEP aims at providing services such as free credit ratings, skill development, local support, corporate partnerships, funding support etc. to women entrepreneurs.
  • WEP has more than 5,000 women entrepreneurs registered on the platform, more than 30 partners and has committed funding of more than US$10mn for these startups.

 

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