Gangtok, Jan 21 (PTI) In yet another incentive to boost the fertility rate in Sikkim, Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang said that women government employees will be given childcare attendants at their homes free of cost to take care of newborns.
Addressing a function at Saramsa Garden near the state capital on Friday, Tamang said his government proposed to recruit women aged 40 years and above to depute them at the home of the women government employees to take care of the newly born children for one year.
“The low fertility rate among the local indigenous population is a matter of serious concern in Sikkim…We must do everything in our hands to reverse the process,” Tamang said.
The Sikkim chief said that his government was aware of the concerns of the women employees as to who will look after their newborn if they decide to become mothers.
The decision to rope in women attendants at the home of the female government employees to take care of their newborn will address their concerns and they will be now keen to fulfil their desire for motherhood, he said.
Tamang said that women childcare attendants will be given a remuneration of Rs 10,000 per month.
The proposal to provide a free of cost childcare attendant at the home of women government employees to take care of their newborn comes a week after the chief minister had announced monetary and other incentives for women belonging to indigenous communities for producing more children to boost the local population.
Tamang had said that women government employees will be given one increment for raising second child and two increments for third child.
In addition, women government employees will get maternity leave for 365 days, while a male employee will get paternity leave for 30 days, the chief minister had said.
The CM that the general people will also be eligible for financial assistance for producing multiple children the details of which will be worked out by the health and women and child care departments.
Tamang further said that his government has launched IVF facility in hospitals in Sikkim to encourage women to conceive babies in the event of having problems to do so naturally for which a grant of Rs 3 lakh will be given to all mothers producing children through this procedure.
He said that so far 38 women have conceived through IVF facility and some of them have become mothers too.
The estimated population of Sikkim is under seven lakh at present of which around 80 per cent belonged to the indigenous communities and the fertility rate is 1.1 per cent. PTI KDK RG
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