Paid menstrual leave for women

(MainsGS2:Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.)

Context:

• Recently, the Supreme Court refused to entertain a PIL about menstrual leave for workers and students across the country, calling it a policy matter.

Policy matter:

• 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.
• 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. 
• 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.

 Allow women time off:

• Most women experience a menstrual cycle of 28 days— a normal cycle may vary from 23 to 35 days and for some, period pain, or dysmenorrhea, is an uncomfortable component of it.
• A 2017 survey of 32,748 women in the Netherlands published in the British Medical Journal also found that 14% had taken time off from work or school during their periods. 
• The researchers estimated that employees lost around 8.9 days’ worth of productivity every year due to menstrual-cycle related issues.
• Thus, menstrual leave polices are designed with a view to allow women time off if they suffer from symptoms which may hamper their functioning and productivity.
• However, some believe that it is not required or that it will backfire and lead to employer discrimination against women.

Global policies:

• Recently, Spain became the first European country to grant paid menstrual leave to workers, among a host of other sexual health rights and workers now have the right to three days of menstrual leave (expandable to five days) a month.
• In Asia, Japan introduced menstrual leave as part of labour law in 1947, after the idea became popular with labour unions in the 1920s. 
• At present, under Article 68, employers cannot ask women who experience difficult periods to work during that time.
• Indonesia too 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.
• 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.
• In 2016, a proposal to introduce menstrual leave in Italy failed in Parliament, allaying the concerns of those worried that it would affect hiring of women. 
• The U.S does not have a formal policy in place either; the U.S also does not have a federal requirement for paid sick leave.

Parliamentary measures:

• In 2017, MP Ninong Ering from Arunachal Pradesh introduced ‘The Menstruation Benefits Bill, 2017’ in Parliament. 
• It was represented in 2022 on the first day of the Budget Session in the Lok Sabha, but was disregarded as an “unclean topic,”. 
• Similarly, Dr. Shashi Tharoor introduced the Women’s Sexual, Reproductive and Menstrual Rights Bill in 2018, which proposed that sanitary pads should be made freely available for women by public authorities in their premises.
• Now, Congress MP from Kerala Hibi Eden announced that he will be moving a private member’s Bill seeking the right to paid leave during menstruation for working women, menstrual leave for female students, and free access to menstrual health products, in the ongoing Budget session of the Parliament.

Conclusion:

• According to research, approximately 40 per cent of girls miss school during their periods. 
• Nearly 65 per cent said it had an impact on their daily activities at school and that they had to skip class tests and lessons as a consequence of discomfort, anxiety, shame, and concerns about leakage and uniform discolouration.
• Thus, Menstrual leave should be provided for three days for women and transwomen and students during the period of menstruation.