Spain’s parliament has approved a bill that would allow women to take paid leave during their periods. With this, Spain has got the honor of being the first European country to give women leave for menstruation during working hours. Spain’s new law has sparked a global debate on menstrual leave.
Its reverberations have continued in India for the past few days. A few days ago, Shailendra Mani Tripathi had filed a petition in the Supreme Court urging the central and state governments to give leave to women during menstruation in educational institutions and workplaces. The petition was heard before a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud on Feb. 24 came to trial. The judges who heard the case said, “This issue has various dimensions. First, let the central government formulate a policy for menstrual leave. After that we will consider it,” they replied and dismissed the petition. As noted by the Supreme Court in countries like India, ‘menstrual leave’ has various complex dimensions.
Menstruation – First of all, the very name of menstruation is seen as a problem and secret in our society. Thus, in a society where there is no complete understanding of menstruation, leave is seen as a privilege rather than a fundamental right of women. In such a realistic environment, the herd mentality of seeing physical pains faced by women during menstruation as memes is likely to increase.
Menstruation is viewed in a wrong way in our society. Menstruation is not just a physical problem. Some people experience psychological effects such as anxiety and mood swings during menstruation. Women working in advanced institutions like corporates do not find it difficult to use toilets during their periods. But women working in small establishments without basic facilities face many problems during their periods. Lack of adequate health facilities is seen as the basic problem here. Therefore, it becomes imperative that understandings about menstruation are fully formed in family, school and community settings.
Can it be placed on the same scale? – First of all The reality is that many women here do not have the understanding of menstruation. The truth is that our educational system has not yet created an opportunity for this understanding. You have seen women curled up in chairs in offices and schools due to menstruation. Some women have no menstrual symptoms at all. In other words, the physical problems that occur during menstruation vary according to each person’s body type. In such an environment, putting the conditions of the two women on the same scale, arguing that she is not in pain, but only you are in pain month after month, will not be of any use here.
According to the results of a 2020 pan-India private sector survey, about 23 percent of women in the age group of 20 to 29 years, 15.18% of women in the age group of 30 to 44 years, and 17.% of teenage girls reported experiencing physical symptoms during their periods. For this to be the case, it is necessary to understand that the demands for menstrual leave are definitely justified.
Debilitating? – On the issue of menstrual leave, the primary criticism is that such programs further disempower women. Women have already been deprived of their rights by being classified as the second sex. It is only now that women are struggling and getting opportunities for themselves in this male-dominated society. In this situation many people are not wrong to think that menopause etc. will further weaken women from society’s point of view.
Reaction in Employment: Next, while women are still denied equal employment opportunities and equal pay in the workplace, there is an added possibility that menstrual leave will definitely cause reactions. Women may be denied employment in workplaces on the grounds of such leave. On the other hand, there will be an environment where women are denied promotion and pay rise for the same reason.
Stats show that when companies engaged in retrenchment measures pointing to the Corona era, 5 people were laid off in a company and 3 of them were women. Therefore, there is a need for the government and women’s welfare organizations to approach this issue keeping in mind such reactions.
Status of unorganized women? – If a Bill on Menstrual Leave is ever introduced in India, it is essential that the leave should reach women from all walks of life. It should be the main responsibility of the government to bring in women working in non-organizational organizations in particular. It is also necessary to keep monitoring systems in place for this.
As for Indian women, most are unorganized workers. Here, women are segregated into domestic work, beedi industry, knitting companies, tea plantation workers, construction workers, cleaners, agricultural laborers. Thus, the government should address the long-term demands of women working in NGOs such as medical insurance, budget funding and pension. In an environment where all these are not resolved, menstruation leave is seen as a luxury here.
In the countries of the world… In Japan, it has been customary for women employed in companies to be given leave if they ask for time off due to menstruation. In Indonesia, the menstrual leave system was introduced and amended in 1948. Accordingly, it is customary for companies to provide two days of menstrual leave to women who ask for menstrual leave. In South Korea, Law 73 allows women to take menstrual leave every month.
Taiwan – Law 14 states that women working in enterprises have the right to receive menstrual leave. Women in Zambia can take a day off due to menstruation. In Vietnam, women can take three days off to mark their period. No deduction will be made from their salary for this. Menstrual leave is also being discussed in Britain.
What does the central government think? – Questions about menstrual leave are not out of the blue. This is a topic that has been debated for ages. In India, menstrual leave is customary in states like Bihar and Kerala. Demands have been raised from time to time that other states should also provide menstrual leave.
If we look back at the position of the BJP government, which has been in power for the past 8 years, on this issue, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani, while answering a question about menstrual leave in Parliament in 2022, had said that the central government has no plan to provide leave for menstruation. He also explained that women have been given maternity leave, child care leave and medical leave. Thus, the current position of the central government on menstrual leave remains the same.
How many of us know that while the female labor force participation rate in India was 25.6% in 2000, this number has decreased to 20.3% in 2019, according to the statistics published by the International Labor Organization. But all these are not the subject of discussion here.
As a result of centuries of struggle for equal rights, equal opportunities and equal pay for women, we are a quarter of the way there. But there is a long way to go. Government organizations should realize that the country’s economy will be healthy only if the contribution of women workers is equal. Unless changes are made in this, menstrual leave will not be seen as essential by this society!
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