Co-authored by: Shriya Sharma and Samiya Chopra
Women comprise nearly half of India’s population, but their representation in the workforce has remained alarmingly low. Data from the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation in 2022 revealed a stark gender gap, with women accounting for only 17.3 percent of the urban worker population. This disparity has seen minimal improvement over the years, reflecting persistent challenges in enabling women to access meaningful employment opportunities.
The historical confinement of women to domestic roles as caregivers and homemakers has severely constrained their access to education and employment. However, for a country’s sustainable and inclusive development, ensuring women’s participation in the workforce is crucial. Even as women have broken barriers to enter the workforce, they continue to grapple with a host of challenges. These include issues of job choice, wage parity, and hostile working conditions justified by outdated notions citing women’s ‘biological framework.’
In this light, the very natural phenomenon of menstruation is never addressed, let alone recognized in the working sector. The debate on the ‘Menstruation Benefit Bill’ was first tabled by Ninong Ering, a Member of Parliament in Lok Sabha representing Arunachal Pradesh in 2017, which triggered a widespread discussion on the need to have a menstrual leave policy for working women every month.
However, the bill is yet to see the light of the day. It now almost feels like a far-fetched dream after the Union Minister of Women and Child Development, Smriti Irani, recently stated in the parliament that menstruation is not a handicap and the government does not need to come up with any policy for mandatory paid menstrual leaves.
In 2016, John Guillebaud, a professor of reproductive health at University College London, explained that period pain can be as “bad as having a heart attack”. Stressing on the mandate of paid period leaves and how different women undergo different degrees of challenges during their menstrual cycle, Gehna Luthra, a marketing manager, stated, “There are women out there who have very strong physical cramping and nausea during their periods.
Plus, some women use menstrual cups which are very difficult to clean and change if you’re not at home since they need proper sterilization before wearing them again, which is not possible at your workplace.” A cross-sectional research conducted by Global Journal of Health Science on dysmenorrhea in Indian female students revealed another stark reality by concluding that 70.2% of the participants were dysmenorrheic, which means that they experience intense cramps and abdominal pain during periods.
Under the pressure of continuously proving their potential, women continue to efficiently work during periods because they have never been allowed to feel the pain. Being conditioned to be “strong,” they have always been taught to accept the pain as something bound to happen. At times when they choose to express their pain, they are discarded as being ‘dramatic’ and ‘exaggerating’ due to existing sexist stereotypes.
We as a society have failed to realize that menstrual leaves are about being considerate towards women and their bodies and are not about propagating discrimination in any way. Addressing the notion of ‘equality’ and the evident ‘physiological differences’ between men and women, Priyasha Chadha, an academic counselor working with a private firm, says, “The idea of equality comes in when both sides have the same biological needs. Thus, the idea of men being discriminated against is not even applicable in the context of paid period leave.” We need to understand how this is not a privilege but would actually bring women at par with men by improving productivity and employee satisfaction.
The section of women not favouring the idea of paid period leave hold that such a mandate would further the bias against them at the workplace and they would need to deal with unfair treatment in the form of hiring bias, lesser pay, slower promotions, and lesser participation in board meetings, than already prevalent. Ayushi Bhardwaj, a young working woman, says “People already choose female employees in the second place due to other reasons; period leaves, if mandated, would be another one added to the list.” However, can we blame the women? No.
Women should not be and cannot be continued to be punished for their biological framework. If women need to tolerate their pain in silence just to ‘fit in’ and not be outcasted, then we surely are paddling the patriarchy cycle ahead.
Along with the pain and discomfort that accompanies periods, what precedes it, is Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS), which is ignored and often mocked by misogynists. Thus, in addition to period leave, providing a comfortable and healthy working environment along with optimum period care in the office should be ensured. This would facilitate healthy conversations about menstrual health in the workplace instead of simply shunning the topic.
From labeling menstruation as a form of untouchability to multiple private organizations in India like Zomato, Swiggy and Byju’s introducing the policy of period leaves, we have come a long way. The lead was recently joined by Anubhav Dubey, the founder of Chai Sutta Bar, who stated that, “Giving leave for menstrual days was not a tough decision. I believe there are a few things that only women understand, and we, as men, only get to see and hear about them.”
While discussing period leaves, it is also important to not bias our lens and focus on only one section of women, as women from all sections irrespective of the kind of work they do, menstruate. While women employees at bigger organizations might still have the ‘luxury’ to avail leave, women employed in informal settings or doing ‘blue collar’ jobs are pushed into silent suffering on the periphery.
The states of Bihar and Kerala also declared paid period leave as their state policy, but the battle would be won only when this would be accepted as a national policy and implemented in a way that there are no victimization conditions. The lack of women’s voice in the parliament, representing merely 15 percent and 13 percent of seats in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, respectively, further makes the mandate of paid period leave an elusive aspiration. It contributes towards reserving the seats in the corporate sector for men, much like the rest of the social and personal spaces.
Menstruation as a reality for women must be duly acknowledged. It is the lack of recognition of women’s bodies and their differential biological requirements that perpetuates patriarchy, biases, and gender blindness in the workspace. Paid period leaves, if mandated, may ensure inclusivity and equity that might then end up challenging the deeply entrenched corporate male dominance.