Normalizing Menstruation: A Journey

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Stigmas and taboos associated with menstruation has denied basic hygiene, medication, knowledge and consultation for years.
• A lot of religious and societal restrictions were imposed on the women during their cycle.
• The women are now being granted leaves from work around the world in order to ease their discomfort during their periods.
• We, as a society, have come a long way from speaking in hushed tones about periods to encouraging women to demand leaves from their workplace during their menstrual cycle.

INTRODUCTION

Menstruation is the bleeding that occurs to a female body as a part of her monthly cycle. It is actually a sign of fertility amongst women and such bleeding occurs when a woman who is not pregnant sheds her uterine lining. It is a natural and healthy process for women of the reproductive age. There are a number of myths associated with menstrual blood and the way a woman is to conduct herself while she is experiencing her “time of the month.”

The women in India are not to enter temples or participate in any religious occasions while she is experiencing her menstrual periods. It is still considered a taboo and the lack of discussion and education about such a regular phenomenon impels the uninformed or little informed to treat the women experiencing her cycle differently, and hinders the accessibility as well as awareness of menstrual hygiene products, or having to access them in ridiculous secrecy.

CONDITION OF MENSTRUATING WOMEN IN INDIA

The women experiencing the cycle have to experience the following:

1. Exclusion from public life: Owing to the belief that menstruation is unhygienic and shameful, they are restricted from carrying on their public life smoothly like cooking, serving food, entering in temples, and are made to isolate themselves from society.
2. Right to work: The job opportunities accessible to women reduce due to the taboos associated with the seemingly impure monthly phenomenon.
3. Negative health consequences: The taboos associated with menstruation restricts acknowledgement of any health issues, hygiene issues which adversely affect their health.
4. Social stigma: The social stigmas associated with menstruation needs the access of menstrual hygiene products, or seeking of medical help or consultation to be ridiculously secret due to which a major chunk of the population is denied such consultations and advice.

MENSTRUAL LEAVE

INDIA

Menstruation, although a regular phenomenon, and ensures the reproductive health of fertile women, is accompanied by abdominal pain, cramps, bloating and discomfort which makes it a bit difficult for most women to carry on with their otherwise daily activities. Menstrual leave is a leave granted by the workplace, paid or unpaid, which allows the women of the organisation to avail such leaves if they find discomfort in disposing their daily duties and responsibilities to the organisation.

The concept of paid leaves for menstruation originated in World War II-era where people realised the need to recognise menstrual pain and discomfort and the fact that it was a valid reason for not being able to carry on with their daily activities. Organizations like Nike and Toyota have implemented a menstrual leave policy in their company. India, in an attempt to improve its labour policies, has also been considering to mandate the grant of menstrual leaves.

An all-girls school in Kerala has been granting menstrual leave to the students since 1912. Since 1992, the Bihar State Government has been granting 2 day leaves to women employees and workers when they were experiencing their menstrual cycle.

Websites such as Culture Machine and Gozoop in 2017, marketing firm FlyMyBiz, etc. have made policies under which menstruating women are allowed leaves for the first day of their cycle. It was done in an attempt to reduce the stress caused due to their physical discomfort, considering that optimum work performance could not be achieved with such physical discomfort, also experienced by women who have relatively painless periods.

In August 2020, Zomato became the first international organisation to have granted two days of paid menstrual leave per month summing up to a period of 10 days yearly.

LEGISLATURE IN INDIA

In an attempt to bring forth the first legislation in terms of menstrual leave, a private member’s bill was moved in the Lok Sabha by Congress Member of Parliament (MP) Ninong Ering of Arunachal Pradesh in the year 2017. Known as the Menstruation Benefits Bill, it set out a gender-sensitive labour policy and provides for facilities to female employees at the workplace during menstruation and matters connected therewith.

Section 4 of the Bill permits paid leave to women during menstruation and provides for a 4-day paid leave or leave from the school during menstruation, to any employee in any registered establishment or any woman who is a student in or above Class VIII. However, in case a woman opts out of this paid leave and instead desire to work, she becomes entitled to an overtime allowance at the prescribed rate.

Section 5 of the Bill grants every working woman, a 30-minute rest period twice a day during her menstruation 4 days in a particular cycle. The Bill also states that every establishment having 50 or more employees shall have a creche facility, either separately or with other facilities.

Such bill was rejected by the Parliament stating the reason that legislatures relating to menstrual leave would result in a disparity among genders and the grant of such leaves would result in the withholding of promotions and an excuse to pay less to the woman employees owing to such leaves.

A PIL was filed Advocate Rajiv Agarwal, which accused the authorities of depriving the employees of their human dignity by not providing separate toilet facilities or breaks to maintain hygiene. It further said there was very little consideration or recognition of the emotional, physical, hormonal and physiological trauma to employees underwent during their menstrual cycle. “Besides facing actual psychological trauma because of sudden hormonal fluctuation, the release of a large amount of extremely inflammatory lipids called prostaglandins constrict the blood vessels in the uterus and make the muscle layer contract, causing painful cramps”, the plea said.

A bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan said that the issues raised in the petition by the Delhi Labour Union should be decided as per law applicable to such matters as soon as possible and practicable. They issued a notice on November 2020 to the Union and Delhi governments take a decision on a petition seeking grant of paid leave to women employees during menstruation by treating it as a representation.

In another landmark case, Indian Young Lawyers Association & Ors vs. The State of Kerala & Ors., 2006, a bench comprising Justices Deepak Mishra, A.N. Khanwilkar, Rohintan Nariman, Indu Malhotra, D.Y. Chandrachud, in September 2018, allowed the entering of menstruating women from the age of 10 years to 50 years to the famous Sabarmati Temple of Lord Ayappa, in which such women had been disallowed from entering since time immemorial.

MENSTRUAL LEAVE AROUND THE WORLD

There are many countries that have allowed paid leaves for women during menstruation such as Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Indonesia. Italy has proposed a paid menstrual leave bill.

Nike, the popular footwear brand, has introduced menstrual leave in their code of conduct worldwide in 2007 and have made it mandatory for their business partners to enter into a signed memorandum of understanding to ensure they maintain the company's standards.

Japan, in the Labour Standards Law, 1947, recognised women suffering from painful periods or those whose jobs might exacerbate period pain and allowed them “seirikyuuka” (meaning 'physiological leave'). Around 1947, women in Japan were entering the workforce in record numbers, and workplaces like factories, mines and bus stations had poor sanitary facilities which resulted in health conditions amongst women. This law was perceived as a recognition of women’s contribution towards the economy so as to encourage more women to participate in building the nation and helped reduce the taboo around menstruation in a conservative society like Japan.

Taiwan, in the 2013 amendment to the Gender Equality in Employment Act guarantees female workers three days of menstrual leave a year, in addition to the 30 days of half-paid sick leave allotted to all workers.

Menstrual leave is granted to several provinces in China.

Indonesian women are legally entitled to take two days a month of menstrual leave.

Women workers in South Korea were granted menstrual leave in 2001, though an experiment in extending the policy to female university students. Such policy was deemed a failure (faculty members decided that the policy was being abused as an excuse for absence). The policy has since faced extensive criticism from Korea's men's rights activists, who, despite Korea's male-dominated work culture, see it as a form of discrimination and gender disparity.

Russia and Australia do not have any legislation or work culture which grants the women workers menstrual leave or benefits of any kind.

Italy became the first European country to allow a paid period leave for women. The leave will only be available to women who have dysmenorrhea, which is a condition that makes periods extremely painful. These women will be free to take three days of paid leave every month.

CONCLUSION

Menstruation, although a sign of health and virility among reproductive women around the world, is considered a taboo, and due to the social stigma associated with it, the woman populace has had to suffer through many psychological, social and religious restrictions since the inception of time. Due to lack of awareness and myths, women have not only been convinced that menstruation should invoke with it a certain conduct, there has always been a lack of recognition of the problems associated with it.

From failure to recognise the physical discomfort and psychological stress, to granting special treatment to menstruating women during their cycle like grant of leaves in various parts of the world, people around the world have started to allow normalisation of menstruation and have admit such topic to be a part of their daily parlance.