Govt adopts CCL, SML, issues gazette notifications
Source: Chronicle News Service
Imphal, June 29 2025:
The state government has formally adopted two Office Memorandums (OMs) issued by Centre, enabling female and certain male government employees in the state to access enhanced paid leave benefits in the form of Child Care Leave (CCL) and Special Maternity Leave (SML).
The move aims to support employees in balancing professional duties with caregiving responsibilities and to provide relief in distressing circumstances such as stillbirth or infant death.
According to separate OMs issued by the finance department's Pay Implementation Cell, both leave provisions were approved during a sitting of the Governor-in-Council held on April 24, this year.
The orders came into effect with the issuance of the memorandums dated May 28, 2025, subsequent publication in the Manipur Gazette Extraordinary on June 25 .
The first notification adopts the Central OM, dated September 11, 2008, along with subsequent modifications, introducing CCL to women government employees and single male employees with minor children.
The provision allows a competent leave-sanctioning authority to grant a maximum of 730 days of CCL during the entire service of an eligible employee to care for up to two eldest surviving children, whether for rearing or to attend to their needs such as examinations or illness.
CCL shall not be admissible once the child turns 18.The leave may be taken in multiple spells and will be paid.
Employees are entitled to 100 per cenLof.
their leave salary for the first 365 days, and 80 per cent for the next 365 days.
The notification also extends the leave to single male parents, which include unmarried, widower or divorcee government servants.
While single female government servants may avail CCL in six spells within a calendar year, others are allowed up to three spells.
However, departments under the Manipur government are empowered to relax this rule and permit up to three additional spells if the child is hospitalised as an in-patient.
Notably, the leave will not be debited from the regular leave account and may also be allowed for the third year as "leave not due" without the need for a medical certificate.
It can also be combined with other kinds of admissible leave.
The second notification adopts Central OM dated September 2, 2022, introducing 60 days of SML in the case of stillbirth or the death of a child within 28 days of birth.
This is intended to support female state government employees dealing with trauma resulting from such events.
The conditions under the OM specify that SML is available only to female state government employees with fewer than two surviving children and whose delivery occurs in an "Authorised Hospital".
These include government hospitals and private hospitals empanelled under the Central or State Government Health Scheme.
In case of delivery in a non-empanelled private hospital during an emergency, the employee must produce an emergency certificate.
If the employee was already on maternity leave when the death or stillbirth occurred, the existing leave may be converted into any other kind of leave available in her account, without a medical certificate, and the 60-day Special Maternity Leave would begin from the date of the child's death or stillbirth.
If no maternity leave was taken, the 60-day SML would commence immediately from the date of the incident.
For the purpose of this leave, a stillbirth is defined as the birth of a baby with no signs of life at or after 28 weeks of gestation, while the "death of a child soon after birth" is defined as occurring within 28 days of birth.
The adoption of these policies is part of the state government's efforts to align with Central government standards under the Manipur Services (Revised Pay) Rules, 2019, and address the evolving needs of government employees.
Finance Commissioner N Ashok Kumar stated in an earlier press release that these measures aim to uphold gender equity and constitutional commitments towards employee welfare.
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