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• Jan 17, 2023 | Kabir Chakraborty

The chief minister stated that his administration has already provided 365 days of maternity leave to female employees and 30 days of paternity leave to male employees in order to encourage them to have children.

Digital Desk: Chief Minister of this state announced various incentives for people belonging to the indigenous communities to produce more children.

Addressing a Maghe Sankranti function in Jorethang town of South Sikkim on Sunday, Prem Singh Tamang said that the population of indigenous communities has been declining, with Sikkim's "fertility rate registering the lowest growth rate at one child per woman in recent years." "We need to reverse the plummeting reproduction rate by incentivizing local people, including women," Tamang added.

The chief minister stated that his administration has already provided 365 days of maternity leave to female employees and 30 days of paternity leave to male employees in order to encourage them to have children.

Furthermore, the state government has recommended paying women employees one increment for having a second kid and two increments for having a third child, he said.

Tamang stated that a woman with only one kid will not be eligible for this financial incentive.

According to the chief minister, the general public would be eligible for financial help for having many children, the specifics of which will be worked out by the Health and Women and Child Care departments.

Tamang stated that his administration has opened the IVF facility in Sikkim hospitals to encourage women to have infants when they are unable to do so naturally, and that a grant of Rs 3 lakh will be paid to all moms who have children through this method.

He stated that 38 women had conceived through IVF and that some of them have become mothers.

Tamang slammed the previous Pawan Kumar Changing government for "coercing" Sikkimese people to have small families with only one child, and said his Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) government wanted to do the opposite by encouraging and incentivizing locals to have larger families with three children to reverse the declining population trend.

The estimated population of Sikkim stood at under seven lakh at present of which around 80 percent belonged to the indigenous communities.