The Minister of Agrarian Affairs and Land Use, Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, has initiated a new policy to allow the ministry’s civil servants who are breastfeeding their children to work three hours later than everyone else.
In addition, mothers who have young infants are allowed to come to work two hours later than other civil servants in the ministry. Mothers with children who are taking school examinations in primary school are allowed to have half a day off on the day of the exam.
“The ministry wants to be kind to women,” Minister Ferry said at the Bogor Palace today, as quoted by Detik.
Ferry thinks children up to primary school age require extra attention from their parents, especially from their mothers.
He hopes this new regulation would not be taken advantage of in the wrong way.
“If someone was caught lying then we’d remove this privilege from [the offender] indefinitely,” Minister Ferry said.
This new privilege for breastfeeding mothers was revealed days after Vice President Jusuf Kalla spoke of the idea of reducing working hours for women so that they could dedicate more time to raising children.
