Even today the word “menstruation” alone is enough to make a room full of people uncomfortable, especially in a country like India.
Over the past few years, feminists and activists have repeatedly debated on why something that is a natural, biologically inherent process in a category that accounts for half of the world’s population, has to be a hushed-up topic.
The topic remains a taboo in most sections of the society in India, not to be openly discussed in any type of setting be it personal or professional.
Its taboo status comes from the ancient myths that have declared the biological process as “impure” and “curse” among other things, giving it a disease status.
Menstrual Leave Is Important
Menstrual leave addresses a number of concerns such as healthcare for women employees, gender equality and participation at the workplace.
Many countries across Asia like Japan, Indonesia, South Korea etc. have accepted the concept and formulated policies to provide menstrual leave for women, but in India it is still a topic that is barely ever discussed.
Several movements like the “happy to bleed” campaign and the “pads against sexism” campaign, that originated in Germany, were emulated by the students of Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi.
Policies based on period leaves have been both criticised and applauded by women.
While critics have claimed these policies to have a counter intuitive effect on women empowerment and gender equality in workplace, there are many who believe that this is an equitable measure with draws the path for equality.
Period Leave Being Adopted By Some
Recently, a leading start-up legal firm Vertices Partners announced period leaves for its legal and non-legal staff for one day each month, with female employees having the discretion to choose whether to avail it or not.
Going back, in India the concept of menstrual leave (or period leave) has made headlines more often over the few past years with start-ups like Zomato taking a step forward to introduce such a facility for its employees.
The first time this concept became mainstream topic of discussion was in the year 2017, when the companies like Gozoop and Cultural Machine, allowed female employees to avail a leave for their first day of period.
But surprisingly enough way before the private sector start-ups and companies, the Bihar government has been offering two days off per month to female government employees since 1992.
WFH Proves That People Can Work At Home
During this pandemic, the corporate sector has successfully adopted the work-from-home system and a four-day work week is also in talks.
So, it can be concluded that one thing that the pandemic has successfully taught the corporate sector is that leaves and a work-from-home system increases the productivity of the employees.
Therefore, when it comes to menstrual leave and the contention of work productivity the same logic will apply that a leave or work-from-home will not only help increase productively, but also enhance gender diversity making the company more attractive for prospective female job appliers.
The view that many held before the pandemic that this will reduce productivity and discourage companies from hiring women is slowly fading away because of various studies and increasing awareness about menstruation.
The pandemic has truly shown us the urgency of mental health issues and the reason why this works in favour of menstrual stigma is because of toll that period cramps and hormonal changes takes on the mental state of the worker.
Long Way To Go
The social fabric of India is patriarchal in nature therefore, in order to prepare the society for the oncoming waves of women empowerment institutionalization of equal rights through legal provisions as become more than necessary.
The words, women empowerment and feminism have been buzzing around raising awareness in the society for long now.
Although it cannot be denied that there have certain major changes regarding gender equality, the Indian society still has a long way to go.
The fight for menstrual leave seems to be the next maternity leave fight that women had to struggle for years, for its implementation.
The fact that there has been a lot of criticism makes one wonder if it is really a practical solution to the issue in hand, but one thing is certain that it is a step forward in the right direction.