The Andhra Pradesh government has relaxed the childcare leave norms for its employees even more.
Now, the government has removed the upper age limit for children for whom employees can take leave. This will allow the workers to avail themselves of the childcare leave benefit at any point in their service.
Additionally, male employees are now also entitled to childcare leave. Earlier, this option was only available to the female employees.
The Andhra Pradesh government first introduced the childcare leave policy in 2016 by the then TDP regime. This policy allowed employees to take up to two months of leave to take care of minor children for rearing or any other needs. This was extended to six months in 2022 under the YSRCP government.
Initially, the childcare leave could only be split over a maximum of three spells. Later, this was extended to 10 spells. In 2024, the government removed the maximum age limit for employees to be able to take these leaves. As such, employees could take these leaves anytime during their service before retirement, provided that the age limit of the child in question matched the requirements.
The new change has removed the upper age limit for children, including differently-abled children. Principal Secretary for Finance, Peeyush Kumar, stated that the change is effective on the date the order was issued.
