CRE-23/1/2018 – Creche- Part(2)
Government of India
Ministry of Women and Child Development

Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi
Dated: 2nd November, 2018

Office Memorandum

Subject: National Minimum Guidelines for setting up and running creches under Maternity Benefit Act, 2017 – Forwarding of

The undersigned is directed to refer to the subject mentioned above & to say that the Ministry of Labour & Employment has notified the Maternity Benefit (Amendment) Act, 2017 mandating that “every establishment having fifty or more employees shall have the facility of creche within such distance as may be prescribed, either separately or along with common facilities”,

2. In this regard, to enable and facilitate the employer for establishing and managing the creche facility, the Ministry of Women & Child Development has formulated the National Minimum Guidelines for Setting Up and Running Creches under Maternity Benefit Act 2017 (copy enclosed).

3. It is requested to circulate the said guidelines to each and every employer/ institution covered under the Maternity Benefit Act thereby empowering them with the requisite know how to set up modeling the  facilities with adequate provisions. A copy of the said guidelines can also be downloaded from the Ministry’s website – www.wcd.nic.in.

Source: www.wcd.nic.in

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Government to refund employers for seven weeks of maternity leave given to employees: WCD

The government will give employers the salaries for seven of the 26 weeks of maternity leave for women earning more than Rs 15,000 a month, the Women and Child Development ministry announced on Thursday.

The announcement, which covers the government as well as the private sector, comes in the wake of complaints that many companies were reluctant hire pregnant women after maternity leave was extended from 12 to 26 weeks and some were even firing women employees.

WCD Secretary Rakesh Srivastava said it has been decided to utilise the funds lying in the labour welfare cess to pay the employers.

“The utilisation of the labour welfare cess lying with the state governments has been very less. After talks with the Labour Ministry it has been decided that the seven of the 26 weeks of maternity leave for all women employees in the private and government sector getting more than Rs 15,000 a month would be paid from that fund,” Srivastava told reporters here.

The labour welfare cess has been given to state governments to ensure the welfare of workers.

Maternity leave was extended from 12 weeks to 26 weeks last year.

According to Srivastava, there were complaints from women that they were getting fired from their jobs due to the increased duration of maternity leave.

“The government has now decided that out of the 14 extra weeks, half of the amount of salary paid to the pregnant woman would be refunded to the employer from the funds of the labour welfare cess,” he said.

Till March 2017, there was Rs 32,632 crore in the fund. Of this, just Rs 7,500 crore has been utilised, he said.

“We would be refunding the salary of seven weeks to the employer so women do not face problems upon returning to work,” he said.

“The labour minister has agreed to the proposal and we are now carrying it forward. There will soon be a notification from the Labour Ministry with further details,” he added.

Source: wcd.nic.in

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In order to ensure the effective implementation of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013, the Ministry of Women & Child Development has launched an online complaint management system titled Sexual Harassment electronic-Box (SHe-Box) for registering complaints related to sexual harassment at workplace of all women employees in the country, including government and private employees.

More than 350 complaints relating to inappropriate behaviour have been received in the Ministry which includes complaint received through portal ‘SHe-box‘.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs has been requested for mandatory disclosure of Internal Complaints Committee (ICCs) in the Annual Report of the Companies. Ministry of Corporate Affairs along with the industry bodies, Associated Chambers of Commerce & Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Confederation of Indian Society, Chamber of Commerce & Industry (CCI), and National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) have also been requested to ensure effective implementation of the Act amongst their members in private sectors.

This information was given by Minister of State for Women and Child Development, Dr. Virendra Kumar in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

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