The task for governments would be to negotiate such obstacles while ensuring that the goals of gender justice and equality are met.
Mandating menstrual leave has both benefits and costs. This needs a wider conversation
By: Editorial
Updated: January 24, 2023 06:55 IST
On January 19, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced on social media that the state government will grant menstrual leave for female students in all state universities under the Department of Higher Education. The announcement came shortly after the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) decided to provide menstrual leave to all its female students after a representation made by the students’ union. Vijayan has described the government’s decision as part of its “commitment to realising a gender-just society”. The government’s claim should inaugurate a wider conversation.
Making period leave available to students — and, going forward, to women in the workforce, perhaps — would be an important step towards acknowledging and addressing the often debilitating pain and discomfort that so many are often forced to work through. Instituting period leave would help create workplaces and classrooms that are more inclusive and more accommodating. Yet, the context within which such policy decisions are taken matters. In a traditional society like India, where menstruation remains a taboo topic, it is possible that a special period leave could become another excuse for discrimination. The examples of similarly traditional societies like South Korea and Japan are not encouraging: Both countries have laws granting period leave, but recent surveys showed a decline in the number of women availing of it, citing the social stigma against menstruation. There is also the risk of medicalising a normal biological process, which could further entrench existing biases against women, as well as the possibility that the perceived financial and productivity cost of mandatory period leaves could make employers even more reluctant to hire women.
What is not in doubt is the necessity for a sustained conversation around menstrual leave — and menstrual health in general. There are some encouraging signs that governments have recognised this. In 1992, Bihar introduced period leave for working women, while the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s Menstrual Hygiene Scheme, first implemented in 2011, seeks to increase access to sanitary napkins for adolescent girls in rural areas. The stigma around menstruation remains a challenge — the Menstruation Benefits Bill, first introduced in Parliament in 2017 and then in the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly in 2022, was withdrawn from the latter because the subject was deemed unsuitable for discussion in the “holy” institution. The task for governments would be to negotiate such obstacles while ensuring that the goals of gender justice and equality are met.
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