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Observers praise paternity leave plan for civil servants
Experts are hailing a proposed provision on paternity leave for civil servants as a breakthrough, especially for its social engineering potential in encouraging fathers to take a more active role in child-rearing.
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Herber Anggara Pandapotan (left) visits on May 11, 2020 his wife Gresie Elfin Siahaan and their newborn baby girl, Bellvania Magdalena Sianturi, at Tambak Maternity and Children’s Hospital in Menteng, Central Jakarta. (AFP/Adek Berry)
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olicymakers are mulling over a draft regulation that could give paternity leave to civil servants, a move experts have commended for its potential to encourage fathers’ greater involvement in raising their children.
The Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Ministry and House of Representatives Commission II, which oversees home affairs, started deliberating last week a draft government regulation (PP) derived from the recently enacted State Civil Service (ASN) Law.
The draft PP was previously criticized for a provision that would allow senior military and police personnel to be appointed as civilian government jobs.
It has again made headlines, this time positively, for a provision that grants paternity leave to civil servants so they can be with their wives during and after childbirth or miscarriage.
“The government is recognizing the important role of fathers in supporting their wives during childbirth, including the early phase after a baby is delivered,” Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Abdullah Azwar Anas said recently.
Azwar said the government had been discussing the provision, including the number of leave days, with lawmakers and other stakeholders.
While the minister did not specify how long male civil servants could take off from work after their child was born, an official at the ministry said separately that the duration of leave could be between seven and 30 days, Tribunnews.com reported.
