Period Leave- A Step Forward or Backwards?

Profile of the Author- Shriya Ojha is a 2nd-year student of LLB at Faculty of Law, University of Delhi. She is deeply interested in constitutional and criminal law.

Introduction

Zomato recently announced a period leave policy for all the female employees of the company giving them a total of 10 extra paid leaves annually. This move triggered a debate among Indian women- whether the move was a progressive step towards destigmatising menstruation or whether the move is regressive as it re-enforces stigmas and norms that prevent women from getting certain job roles due to biological determinism and prejudice employers further from hiring women thus taking women farther from the larger goal of equality.

Menstrual leave is not an alien policy in the national or international sphere and Zomato is not the first company in India to do so. Companies like Nike and Toyota, Culture Machine have had provisions of paid menstrual leave for women employees for a few years now. Where no European country has taken a step towards providing a legal mandate to menstrual leave, Asian countries like Japan, South Korea, Indonesia have assumed a leading role in this direction by providing a legal sanction to paid menstrual leave through their respective Labour laws. With respect to the domestic scenario, the Bihar government has been providing two extra days of casual leave to female employees of the government since 1992.  The human resource guidelines of the Bihar government state: -

“All women staff is eligible to avail two days of special leave every month because of biological reason. This is in addition to all the other eligible leaves.”

The Menstruation Benefits Bill, 2017

In 2017, Shri Ninong Ering, member of parliament from Arunachal Pradesh introduced a private members bill titled “THE MENSTRUATION BENEFITS BILL, 2017”.[1] The key provisions of the bill were –

1. Every woman— (a) who is working as an employee in any establishment registered with the appropriate Government; or (b) who is a student in or above Class VIII in any school recognized by the appropriate Government, shall be entitled to paid leave or leave from the school, as the case may be, for four days during her menstruation:
   Provided that if a woman employee undergoing menstruation opts to work instead of taking leave, she shall be paid overtime allowance at such rate and in such manner as may be prescribed.
2. Every woman employee working in the establishment during her menstruation shall be entitled to thirty minutes of rest period twice a day for not more than four days during menstruation in a month.
3. Whoever,— (a) denies leave to a woman during her menstruation; or (b) obstructs a female employee from an entitlement of menstrual leave; or (c) denies or discontinues prescribed rest and recreation facilities to the women during her menstruation, shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than one month but which may extend up to three months and with fine which shall not be less than ten thousand but which may extend to fifty thousand Rupees.

The bill did not see the light of the day, as many detested the move stating that the move will polarise women, stigmatise periods, promote the idea that female workers are less capable than male workers and add to the already declining female participation in the workforce.

The DEBATE

Let us understand the debate surrounding the issue of period leave and why in my opinion, it is a progressive and much-needed move towards providing a better work environment for women. Human bodies are diverse; male and female bodies are biologically different. As much as it is undisputed that the biological difference should not be in the way of women getting certain jobs, it is also important to question why are workplace policies framed around an abstract one-size-fits-all body? The workplaces must aim to be inclusive of all bodies and their needs. Menstruation is an exclusively female body experience and is extremely discomforting for most women. In 2016, John Guillebaud, professor of reproductive health at University College London, explained that period pain can be as “bad as having a heart attack”.[2] Just because period leave is not a requirement of a male body, why should the discomfort of women be trivialised and any provision of relaxation during this period be termed as “special treatment” of women when literally all women go through this once every month?

Prof. Ved Kumari of Faculty of Law, University of Delhi in her lecture titled “Law is male” ponders upon a similar argument. Why are laws that carter to women specifically such as maternity benefit laws or even menstrual leave policy termed as “special law” or “special legislation”? What do we understand by special legislations? Special legislation is a legal term used to refer to legislation that targets an individual or a small, identifiable group for treatment that does not apply to all the members of a given class. With respect to laws catering specifically to women such as period leave, what is it that the men are missing out on which they would have otherwise been entitled to? Why is a normal body a male body and anything that is a requirement of a female body termed as “special”?Why is it that the body that the law is structured around “male” and any law that caters to something that the male body does not need to be termed as “special law”?

Conclusion

Issues of gender discrimination have been existent irrespective of period leave. Period leave can make room for conversation in schools and workplaces leading to major destigmatisation. To solve these issues, we need much larger structural changes such as increased education and awareness, proactive measures for increasing female participation in the workforce, encouraging organisations/employers to improve their employee gender ratios, changes in human resource practices etc. Women do not need to suffer physically and mentally every month just so that they can establish that they are the same as men because we are not. We are different. Female and male bodies are different biologically, and we cannot dispute that. Moreover, there are many medical conditions and complexities associated with periods. But that does not mean that we are any less capable or less deserving. The workplaces must evolve to accept and include these differences to make sure that no individual must suffer on account of work.

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References

[1] THE MENSTRUATION BENEFITS BILL 2017, http://164.100.47.4/billstexts/lsbilltexts/asintroduced/2651LS%20As%20In.pdf

[2] https://feminisminindia.com/2019/09/20/need-menstrual-leave-policy-india/