Government doubles child care allowance for women with disabilities

New Delhi: The Centre has doubled to Rs 3,000 per month the child care allowance for women employees with disabilities. At present, the allowance of Rs 1,500 per month is given to differently-abled female employees for taking care of their newborn child. “Women with disabilities shall be paid Rs 3,000 per month as special allowance for child care. The allowance shall be payable from the time of the child’s birth till the child is two years old,” an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said. It shall be payable for a maximum of two eldest surviving children, it said. “The above limit would be automatically raised by 25 per cent every time the Dearness Allowance on the revised pay structure goes up by 50 per cent,” said the DoPT order, issued two days ago. The decision to hike the allowance is based on the recommendations of seventh central pay commission. The central government has accepted most of the recommendations of the pay panel. “The Commission recognises the huge responsibility that these women shoulder while raising their children. Therefore, instead of the factor of 1.5 that we have mostly used for semi-DA indexed allowances, it is recommended that this allowance be raised by a factor of 2 to Rs 3,000 per month,” the commission had said in its report. The DoPT has abolished desk allowance granted to Desk Officers in the Central Secretariat Service (CSS) and other headquarters services at a rate of Rs 900 per month. The pay commission had also recommended abolishing this allowance as it is virtually non-existent since 2010. The DoPT has also issued orders for the reimbursement of children education allowance, which will be Rs 2,250 per month. “The amount fixed for reimbursement of hostel subsidy will be Rs 6,750 per month,” it said. In case both the spouses are government servants, only one of them can avail reimbursement under children education allowance, the order said. “The above limits would be automatically raised by 25 per cent every time the Dearness Allowance on the revised pay structure goes up by 50 per cent. The allowance will be double for differently-abled children,” it said.