MENSTRUAL LEAVE POLICY – SOCIAL ISSUE
News: Explained
| Menstrual leave and its global standing
What's in the news?
● The
Supreme Court of India recently directed a petitioner to take up the issue of
menstrual leave with the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Key takeaways:
● The
Supreme Court refused to entertain a PIL about menstrual leave for workers and
students across the country, calling it a policy matter.
● It
highlighted that there were different “dimensions” to menstrual pain leave, and
also that while menstruation was a biological process, such leave may also act
as a “disincentive” for employers from engaging female employees.
● The
concept of menstrual leave for workers and students has swirled around for a
couple of centuries, but such policies are uneven and subject to much debate,
even among feminist circles.
Menstrual leaves:
● Menstrual
leave or period leave refers to all policies that allow employees or students to take time off when they are experiencing
menstrual pain or discomfort.
● In
the context of the workplace, it refers to policies that allow for both paid or
unpaid leave, or time for rest.
Menstrual Leave Policy:
● Menstrual
leave policies are designed with a view to allow women time off if they suffer
from symptoms which may hamper their functioning and productivity.
● It
recommends that workers be given leave from work while menstruating, just as they
would for any illness.
● These
leaves are not covered and are taken in addition to the usual sick leaves
provided to all employees.
● In
India, there is no legislative provision
for menstrual leave.
Need for menstrual leave:
1. Health:
● In
India, 20% of menstruators have PCOS and approximately 25 million suffer from endometriosis.
2. Disturbance to profession:
● Many
women advocate paid menstrual leave due to the excruciating pain and disturbance to professional
responsibilities that period pain causes.
3. Opportunity for women to speak up:
● Menstrual
leave could be an opportunity for women to speak up about their menstrual cycle
and to receive treatment for health
issues related to it.
4. Humane working conditions:
● It
was not that women needed rest while menstruating, it was just the lack of
humane working conditions that made labour movements push for menstrual leaves.
Issues ahead:
1. Fear of bias in hiring:
● The
introduction of mandatory paid maternity leave may lead to a bias in hiring due
to the financial costs to employers.
2. Labour force participation of women:
● The
biased hiring may lead to the decline in the labour force participation of
women.
3. Health complications:
● In
Maharashtra’s Beed district, contractors in the sugarcane industry do not hire anyone who menstruates, compelling
more than 10,000 female sugarcane cutters to surgically remove their uteri to
secure work.
4. Human rights violation:
● They
are now experiencing various post-surgery health complications which are
equated to human rights violations.
Government Initiatives:
● The Menstruation Benefits
Bill, 2018 which stipulates 2 days of menstrual
leave and better rest facilities at the workplace is yet to receive assent.
● Kerala
– The Kerala government recently announced that it will grant menstrual leave
to female students at state universities.
● Bihar-
Bihar has offered 2 days of menstrual leave a month since 1992.
Private Initiatives:
● Mumbai-based companies,
Gozoop and Culture Machine, became the first private companies in 2017 to
introduce the first day of period (FOP) leave in India.
● Zomato
has introduced menstrual leaves for up to 10 days a year for its women and
transgender employees.
● Swiggy and Byjus
have also introduced similar menstrual leave policies in India.
● Companies
across nations, such as Nike and
Coexist, have introduced menstrual leave as an internal policy.
International Initiatives:
● Japan
- In the 1920s, labour unions in Japan popularized the concept that has stood
for more than 70 years now.
● Soviet Russia
- In the 1920s and 30s, Soviet Russia relieved menstruating women from paid
labour to safeguard their reproductive health, thus originating the idea of
formal menstrual leave policy.
● Spain
became the first European country to grant paid menstrual leave to workers,
among a host of other sexual health rights.
● Indonesia
introduced a policy in 1948, amended in 2003, saying that workers experiencing
menstrual pain are not obliged to work on the first two days of their cycle.
● In
the Philippines, workers are
permitted two days of menstrual leave a month.
● Taiwan
has an Act of Gender Equality in Employment in place. Under Article 14 of the
Act, employees have the right to request a day off as period leave every month,
at half their regular wage.
● South Korea
takes a slightly different route, allowing for monthly physiologic leave under
Article 73 of their labour law, allowing all female workers to get a day off
every month.
● Among
the African nations, Zambia
introduced one day of leave a month without needing a reason or a medical
certificate, calling it Mother’s Day.
Menstrual
leave can easily allow a woman to work from home and work on her own terms, and
at her own comfort and flexibility.
It will in fact increase the productivity of the employee during this time
rather than reduce it. Considering the sizable population of menstruators in
India who face stigma, period leave cannot be dismissed anymore as a foreign
concept. It is a pivotal step in ensuring proper
reproductive health equity in India