All menstruating people, on an average, bleed for a period of 5 years of their lives. Most of which is spent managing the blood, discomfort, pain, and stigma circling menstruation. The absence of women at the workplace marks the absence of the major menstruating population from the workplace. As a result, a working environment is so created, which, instead of catering to the need of menstruators, requires them to adjust to the neutral policies so formed. Resultantly, unlike menstruation, menstrual leaves are highly irregular around the world- only a handful of countries recognize it. Even the ones which provide it, fail to recognize all the people who come under the umbrella of menstruation.
Giving them time off while they bleed is not a mainstream concept because they are the others in the world of non-bleeding cis-men. It is important to let people know that unlike what patriarchy has taught them, asking for menstrual leaves is not asking for too much, it is asking for just enough.
1. My journey of bleeding
Ever since I was told what periods are, I waited for my turn to bleed, until finally after 3 years, I shed blood in September 2014. All my excitement took the backseat when I told my mom about it. She was mad at me, she asked me to not talk about it, to stay away from everyone else, to not go to the kitchen, to take the plastic utensils, to bathe after everyone else had, to take different sets of bedsheets and to go to a different room.
It has been 9 years and I still find my way to the room every month, but now, I have found a community around the room. I have neighbors who have had it worse, neighbors to whom blood came as a surprise, neighbors who do not have access to period products, neighbors who have a stricter household, neighbors who suffer in silence, and neighbors who have no idea that they are being wronged.
2. Research and Findings
Let me tell you about the ones who silently suffer at the University of Rajasthan. These neighbours include the labourers, the staff, the students, and the frequent visitors of the campus.
When I tell them about the existing period leaves in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand, and Kerala, and how I look forward to having the same in the university, they react unalike. The teaching staff either ignores me or wishes me luck with no sense of belief. The labourers brush off the topic and say that it is impossible that this can be implemented for the labour class. Some students are furious because they think it will portray women as the weaker sex, again. People reaching menopause cannot care less. They come from different walks of life and are divided by their reasons of unbelief in the potential period leaves. What unites them is the pain, discomfort, and stress of periods. Even when 68.85% of them take leaves while menstruating, asking for paid menstrual leaves is unthinkable to them.
3. Why not?
Who decides that we can have period leaves? Statistically, cis-men. They make up the majority of a privileged group of people who do not have to bleed their lives out every month and still have the power to decide what happens with the ones who do. They belong to the top shelf of the patriarchal cupboard which has taught menstruating populations to not come out with their pain.
The society has taught menstruating people to glorify the pain, to bear it like a blessing, to not talk about it and to think of it as an impurity. The blood which is the reason of their existence is tagged disgusting by them.
4. What to do?
To bring about a change in the status of menstrual leaves, it is important to empathize everyone about the pain, the discomfort, the stress, the plights menstruating people go through. Moreover, it is important to tell the menstruating people that it is their right to rest while bleeding. I am doing my part by going to classes and colleges around and talking to a room full of people about it. You do yours by telling your neighbour, colleague, friend, and sibling about it.
5. Way forward
I have started an online petition to seek 2 days paid-discretionary menstrual leaves per month to all the menstruating people in my university. You can sign it here. Along with the online petition, I have met some power holders and sent letters to different stakeholders around. I also successfully organised a period awareness program in my college on the eve of World Menstrual Hygiene Day. It was the entry to a parallel universe where an organisation donated sanitary pad vending machine to the college, where college administration talked loudly about periods, where everybody was dressed in shades of blood and where the walls screamed period positivity. I encourage you to do it too. Let us start small. Today my university, tomorrow yours.
#BleedInPeace #BleedInEase
Sources:
Other countries- Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, China, Zambia, Taiwan, Vietnam, Spain, etc. Corporates with period leave policies- Zomato, Swiggy, Byju’s, Mathrubhumi, Glad U Came, etc.
Survey report: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nVnnxOu6jnvGYaQB8G92ICyNyuONRalw/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102113517629633290048&rtpof=true&sd=true
Gender ratio in parliament: https://www.mpa.gov.in/sites/default/files/Women%20in%20Parliament_0.pdf, (last opened 28/05/23)