More Indian states and companies offer period leave

BENGALURU – Ms Francesca Cotta is prone to painful cramps, severe weakness and waves of emotional distress during her periods.

The 29-year-old writer, who lives in Goa, would always have to take a day off when the pain became especially bad. This was despite none of her previous workplaces – start-ups and small magazines – offering paid leave for female employees suffering menstrual pain.

“If I worked with a woman, I was more likely to say I was having my period. With a male boss, I would say ‘stomach ache’ and they would understand. I have been fortunate that I have never been denied a day off,” said Ms Cotta, who is now self-employed. Sometimes this was off the books, and at other times, she would use her normal leave allotment.

“There are times I have blacked out due to a severe lack of energy. It’s not healthy for the organizational expectation to be that all women employees in pain must always suck it up,” she said.

READ: ECOP rejects menstrual leave: ‘Let’s not overdo it’

But like most Indian women, more often than not, she tolerated the pain on the job because of her own discomfort in bringing it up or worry about missing work deadlines.

Changes, though, are afoot, with a growing number of employers and politicians taking the provision of menstrual leave more seriously than ever before.

In the past four years, the idea of menstrual leave has gone from being a one-of-a-kind corporate policy by a food delivery app in Bengaluru to featuring prominently in the election manifestos of political parties during recent polls in western India’s Maharashtra state.

As women voters become more politically significant and companies and governments want more women in the workforce, that taboo-laden, hush-hush “time of the month” has become a national subject today.

Court petitions and parliamentary proposals for menstrual policies have been rejected but are bringing the issue to the forefront. Three state governments mandated menstrual leave in 2023 and two more are seriously considering it.

Pandemic review

Despite religious and cultural stigmas around menstruation in India, several corporations, big and small, are reviewing their human resource policies to offer time off or flexible work days for their women and transgender employees during menstruation.

Since food delivery start-up Zomato first offered 10 days of paid period leave annually in 2020, other companies have also instituted such leave.

READ: Women’s party-list wants monthly ‘menstrual leave’ legislated

These include rival food delivery app Swiggy, educational technology firm Byju’s, Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi, digital content company Culture Machine, data security company Seclore Technology and Indian electricals manufacturer Orient Electric.

Much of this began during the pandemic, when “a lot of companies were generally thinking about employee welfare more than they ever had before, and work-life balance was taken more seriously”, said Ms Aparna Mittal, founder of the Delhi-based Samana Centre, a firm that consults on diversity, equity and inclusion.

Menstrual leave allows employees to take time off work when period symptoms like cramps, nausea or dizziness become so painful or uncomfortable that they impede their ability to work.

For women with conditions like endometriosis or polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), period pain can be debilitating.

Non-profit Slam Out Loud, which runs art education programs in schools in Delhi, Pune, Bengaluru and in villages, reworked its leave policy in 2023 after two women employees with endometriosis and PCOS talked about experiencing unbearable pain during their menstrual cycles.

“Women should not have to use their sick or casual leave for their menstrual days, something all of us experience. They end up not having any leave left for vacations, festivals or actual sickness,” said Slam Out Loud’s co-founder, Ms Mridula Reddy, 30.

The organization now offers its 45 staff one day a month as optional menstrual leave.

Mr Thomas Zacharias, 38, a chef who established The Locavore, a food-based storytelling and event company in Kochi, offers one or two days of menstrual leave every month to his 40 employees.

He said that “changing deadlines to accommodate a colleague’s overall wellness does not make a big difference to productivity” and instead creates a healthy workplace with invested workers.

Sure but slow uptake

However, as only a fraction of organizations are forward-thinking on the matter, labour experts say governments should make policies to compel companies to offer such leave.

Some experts said a government mandate could help end employers’ last-mile reluctance, especially in manufacturing, retail and sales sectors, which are conventionally lax in adopting labour-friendly practices.

Japan has established menstrual leave as a labour right since 1947. Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and Zambia also have menstrual leave. The designs vary, with some offering three days off every year, an optional day a month, flexible arrangements like remote work, or longer breaks during the workday for a few days a month.

In India, politicians who have dismissed it include former women and child development minister Smriti Irani, who asked in 2023: “Why should a woman’s menstrual cycle be known to her employer?”

Four attempts by MPs in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2022 to introduce menstrual benefit laws failed to even be approved for discussion in Parliament.

In January, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition to make menstrual leave mandatory at the workplace, saying that it would “lead to women being shunned from the workforce”, although there is no evidence that this would happen.

“In no instance has it ever been reported that a menstrual leave policy prevents employers from hiring women,” wrote sociologist Manjima Bhattacharjya, the author of Intimate Cities, in The Indian Express newspaper, making a case for menstrual policies because they create healthier, more equal workplaces.

But even as the national government dithers, state governments are blazing the trail in mandating menstrual leave – in response to and in encouragement of women’s participation in the workforce, which has nearly doubled from 22 per cent in 2017 to 40.3 per cent in 2023.

Odisha state in the east announced one day’s leave a month in November. In 2023, the southern state of Kerala granted a 2 per cent relaxation in attendance for menstrual issues to female students in all universities and institutions.

Karnataka, also in the south, is finalizing a policy under which women get six days of paid menstrual leave every year.

The northern state of Bihar has given two days of menstrual leave since 1992, even though women made up a small portion of the working staff at the time. The law emerged from a set of demands made by striking public sector employees, among them women teachers, nurses and clerks, who asked for menstrual leave as well as toilets and creches.

Mrs Sangita Kumar, 65, a retired government school teacher in Patna, said the right to take menstrual leave “gave me a lot of relief” through most of her three-decade-long career.

“At first, we teachers called it ‘natural leave’ in the letter to the headmistress, and later settled on ‘special leave’. Given a little moment to rest, I became more productive when I returned to work,” said Mrs Kumar, who found it useful even during her menopause.

To male colleagues “joking” about women being perpetually on leave, she would say “it’s government policy, it is legal”. She added: “Just like we women do on so many occasions, I ignored the taunts till they stopped.”

An official in the Bihar government’s social welfare department told The Straits Times that the progressive legislation was “perhaps too ahead of its time”, because many professors initially felt “shy and awkward” to ask for menstrual leave.

But “these days, it has become quite routine in government offices, with some women applying for it and others saying they don’t need it”, he said, under the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Lingering euphemisms

Without the backing of a law, companies that do offer menstrual leave often use workarounds to address the stigma or complaints about unfairness from some sections. This helps their female employees take the needed time off work without undue scrutiny.

Many call it “wellness leave”, 12 to 15 days of paid days off in addition to sick and casual leave, which staff can also take to attend to mental health needs, said Ms Mittal of Samana Centre. They also have “manager sensitization” training to “prevent supervisors from making comments or rolling their eyes”.

A senior manager at technology company IBM said that while menstrual leave is “not categorized as such”, he has “the flexibility to grant unlimited casual leave in pockets of one day at a time” to his subordinates based on trust.

“I have had multiple employees use that option when they’ve had particularly intense menstrual periods in a given month,” said the IBM manager, who requested anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Some employees tell him the reason openly while others use codes such as “feeling under the weather”.

Though change is painstakingly slow, workplaces are heading in the right direction, both in offering period leave and finding ways to reduce the stigma for women.

Two employees from a major public sector manufacturer that employs over 7,700 people told ST that since 2023, it has offered an option to work from home for two reasons: menstruation or caregiving. Employees select one option in the employee management system.

“Initially, I didn’t want my (manager) to know when I was on my period, but after I worked from home a few times, I am over my embarrassment. So are the managers,” said an employee of the conglomerate who is in her 30s.

“It’s no big deal now,” she added.