The problem with any reformatory action for women is that it is mostly presided over by male legislators and seems concessional rather than deserved, imposed for the wrong reasons rather than earned for the right. It makes women look like beneficiaries of a political dole, a minority that needs to be placated and not heard for what they want and why they need it. In a country where a multi-hundred-crore earning film dismisses menstruation as a reason for women to “create drama” while “changing only four pads a month” — and that makes it past the hyper-vigilant censor board — there is a serious problem of perception. Not just in men but in women too, who bought the ticket to condone the stereotype and those who passed the film as “art for art’s sake.” Besides, most women professionals know how they have been overlooked for a promotion or bypassed for a plum project simply because they chose motherhood in the middle of their happening career, and got treated like a non-performing asset (NPA).
So yes, in such a scenario, any talk of paid menstrual leave would only seem like entitlement rather than an incentive for women to be a part of the workforce. Perhaps that’s why Union Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani opposed a policy for period leaves in the Parliament, adding that it may lead to women in the workforce being discriminated against. That’s why she even took pains to clarify that this was her personal view and not that of the government, which has, in fact, released a draft menstrual policy, addressing the issue of discrimination and the need for an enabling work environment with support leaves and work-from-home options. “It is important to emphasise that such arrangements should be available to all, to prevent perpetuating stigmas or assumptions about productivity based on menstrual cycles,” the policy reads. It has also been made inclusive, acknowledging menstruation in “trans and the non-binary population.”
The fear of perpetuating stigmas is why the Supreme Court on February 24 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 act as a “disincentive” for employers from engaging female employees.
The real issue is that we have not normalised menstruation as a biological process in a woman’s body in our conversations while we feel enlightened talking about menstrual hygiene, from podcasts to anganwadi gatherings. That’s why people are unaware of how women suffering from endometriosis or dysmenorrhoea go through painful and physically paralysing experiences, often unable to get off their bed or passing out because of severe blood loss. Or that pain, heavy bleeding, lack of concentration, hormonal mood swings, bloating and nausea can make women listless and uncomfortable at work.
Even now, corporates are beginning to talk about work-from-home and flexi hours for women not because they have had a big change of heart, but because lockdowns during the pandemic showed that men could be functional while staying at home. The day we stop referencing men as a template and accommodate women’s concerns as meriting their own space rather than as a spinoff, we will be talking of equity and period leave in an evolved manner. Otherwise, it will swirl around in the realm of political point-scoring and ticking off a social welfare box.
Part of the misconception about women’s health has also got to do with the full acceptability of women as value creators and equal stakeholders in a thriving economy. Confined to the role of worker bees, only 100 out of 2,000 listed firms in Indian Inc have women as CEOs or MDs. The representation of women in Parliament is at a dismal 15 per cent, not hefty enough to argue for why a maternity or period leave could elicit more loyalty from the woman employee and also boost her productivity.
It benefits employers too when they create conditions for women to maximise their productivity on days when they are not physically at 100 per cent. A 2019 survey in the peer-reviewed medical journal BMJ Open tracked more than 32,000 women in the Netherlands and found that presenteeism accounts for nine days of lost productivity per person every year. Two-thirds of the surveyed women said they “wished they had greater flexibility in their tasks and working hours… during their periods.”
But a male gaze in policy-making is the reason that only one country in Europe, Spain, has a menstrual leave policy, allowing for three days of leave per month, and two additional days in exceptional cases. Zambia is the only African nation to do so. In fact, the Soviet Union was the first to enact laws to protect the menstrual health of women workers in 1922. Japan and South Korea followed with one day of paid menstrual leave per month and Taiwan and Indonesia granted up to three recently. In India, Bihar (1992) and Kerala (2023) have a leave policy in place as do certain corporates.
Women are fighting hard for equity in their workplaces and leadership positions and could do without a leave endowment that would willy-nilly be held against them and reinforce their physical challenges. Any day, a flexi-hour provision and ease of working environment will make them the most productive workforce.
rinku.ghosh@expressindia.com
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