The seeds of the taboo against menstruation were sown long back, when our Biology teacher skipped the four-lined small paragraphs, headlined as 'Menstruation Cycle' in the curriculum of secondary education. Not only that, some of the instructors even assigned the class to read the topic on their own, while some of them discussed the section of the chapter, and they knowingly or unknowingly attempted to make it awkward for the girls in the class. Hiding a sanitary napkin by wrapping it with a piece of newspaper, and disposal of the same whilst trying to escape from the male members of the family added layers to this stigmatization. One could marvel at their capability to do so, no? Writing application one or the other time to the HR team stating "unwell today will be taking the day off", and having to answer the so-called concerned questions with an evergreen excuse “stomach upset”, “weakness” or "too tired" et cetera when we just wanted to say out loud that we are “experiencing our unbearable period cramps, and we need a glass of hot water or a heating pad, so we are taking the day off”; added another cherry to the already existing ostracism.
It is quintessential to understand that all of us are born with different biological realities, and it would be only humanly on our part to ensure that we normalize those realities. Once you realize the envisaging of space for every gender’s biological needs, while not lowering the quality of work and productivity, hey humans! Get down to the ground then. Shut off your digital screens after another post or another blog on the give subject which utmost satisfies the pseudo-brave act of propagating proudly through your status of being a true feminist; welcome yourself to the groundwork, and contribute through your actions to make a difference this time.
Food-tech firm Zomato has recently taken a similar action to give up to ten days of Paid Period Leave in a year to all the female employees (including transgender people) and thrive for a change. Now the question which mushrooms the very next second is why only ten days, and not twelve or fourteen days since there are 12-14 menstruation cycles on an average in a year. The answer to which is the adjustment of the probability of having periods on weekends too, one can rightfully avail ten extra leaves as compared to the male employees, and in totality one period leave for each menstruation cycle.
No doubt Zomato CEO, Deepinder Goyal tried on Zomato’s part, the best to cultivate a more progressive and collaborative work environment, but do you actually consider it to be an improvement? In the surge to foster a culture of trust, truth and acceptance, did you detect an alarming signal of the worsening of the normal workplace situations?
Why can’t companies rather introduce a gender-neutral sick leave policy on the required days for menstruating employees, instead of exclusively labelling them as 'Period Leaves'? Doesn’t it seem to be unnecessarily prying into women’s lives? On an average, if a woman (including the transgender) is committed to a certain service for a span of 30 years in her life, it means that she can avail at most 300 paid period leaves which is equivalent to almost one year. In turn, that means that she would be on paid leave for almost a year. Doesn't this, technically, pave way for a huge gender pay gap? Come on! We did speak up so much and so loud, when similar discrimination was imposed against women reeling back to the times when women were paid less in juxtaposition to the men, for a similar amount of labour work.
However, this is not the first time that concerns like such have been given a thought to, and a change driven policy is implemented. Even in the past, a handful of Indian companies such as Horses Stable, Culture Machine and FlyMyBiz have rolled out similar provisions for women employees to take their first day off of their period cycle. In 2017, the Culture Machine placed a menstrual leave policy independent of vacation and sick days. The Indian State of Bihar also provides two extra days of casual leave for government employees to take time off for periods since 1992. Countries like Japan, South Korea and Indonesia have been offering paid menstrual leave for decades. Countries such as South Korea & Taiwan already have regular period leaves. Japan has offered menstrual leave policies since 1947, but Italy still seems to be struggling with the same.
Propositions will proudly propagate that such policies would instil a sense of acceptance, but what I believe is that it will in no way equalise situations, it may even worse create a sense of repulsion. A repulsion, when the companies and recruiters will think twice about, before offering jobs to women if such leave were made mandatory across the industry. In March 2020, India, a Local Circles survey found that 49% surveyed start-ups and SMEs (8,500) hired fewer, or no women employees in the last 12 months, due to the 'financial strain' of extending 26 weeks paid maternity leaves. But then awareness regarding such a sensitive issue hasn't surged at such a rate even when Private players are devising such policies. Noting down all the concerns from the opposition side, there still breeds a firm believe that initiatives like such would pave way for a more progressive and collaborative work environment. Even in the past, the idea behind this motion, was to ensure those female industry workers, leaders and influencers have legislation to fall back on that could not justify lower pay or withholding of promotions because of their biological cycle. Over the past, these steps have succeeded to hand people a more open forum to discuss not only such 'issues' but also biological realities in a more acceptable manner. Women workers get more time to spend with themselves and know about themselves and their body. These small fractions of life extracted out of such leaves, have helped them to nurture themselves, and thud again with more enthusiasm and lively spirit to the work environment.
Talking about Zomato in particular, the inclusion of transgender in this policy reflects the inclusive approach, and work environment Zomato wants to shape and set an example. Nevertheless, since the time Zomato announced this policy, this subject has conquered almost every microphone nationwide, which could be because of the huge distribution network Zomato has across India and its scaling goodwill.
Human Capital theories suggest that with more education, women acquire better skills and their labour force participation increase. However, with time it has been observed that the female LFPR (Labour Force Participation Ratio) is reducing at an alarming rate in both developed and developing countries even with the rise in education level. There have been certain non-educational factors as well which have been equally contributing to the declining female LFPR and validates the paradox where education is negatively related to female LFPR. One of the factors being an uncomfortable work environment along with the stigmatization of women sensitive issues acquiring a major share in the concerned work environment.
Meanwhile, one thing to note is that would this mere relaxation on the part of paid period leaves, add something substantial to the work environment, and productivity of women workforce? Will this improvement increase the representation of women in the corporate work environment? If this would reduce the exposure of job roles for women, considering their absence suddenly at period cycles in a month would make the business unit suffer? So far, any such claims have not been reported in regions where such policies have already been implemented.
There are number-some propositions which override the abiding opposition claims. Having said that, women should not be 'made to bear with' their biological framework. It is pertinent to remind ourselves that when we talk about equality at the workplace, it means equality in the working conditions of both men and women and not just those that can be accepted or rejected based on convenience. Added to this, it is important for such a policy or law to be strictly implemented, where space is freely given, to such subjects for a dialogue or a meaningful conversation, to take place along with well-formulated labour laws. The writer believes that in every nation-state, where menstruation is met with a raised eyebrow and disgust, such a policy would bring a much-needed change in the right direction atleast in the mindset of people.
So what if, the small paragraph on Menstruation Cycle, in particular, was skipped the last time when the instructor was preaching lessons, but now, the better being in you, should not step aback in voicing this subject, this time and normalize the reality.
Author-
Antisha Nigam
antishanigam73@gmail.com
On paper, a final year student majoring in Finance and minoring in Economics, from the University of Delhi. In person, a wild species, who is currently struggling for the answers to "Why" rather than "What" and "How". One can always reach out to me for a ceaseless conversation over platter of Food, Finance and a cup of hot poetries. Till then, keep inhaling oxygen.
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