The Long Road to Period Equity in India

Last week, India’s Supreme Court rejected a repeat petition for 2-3 days of monthly menstrual leave for female workers and students. Lawyer Shailendra Mani Tripathi had previously filed it in February 2023 and July 2024, and the most recent rejection was filed by Justices Surya Kant and Joymala Bagchi. They had based their decision on the assumption that, if menstrual leave was put into effect, women would face increased barriers in the workplace. Kant stated that women who took menstrual leave would not be taken seriously, nor assigned responsibilities. The allocation of menstrual leave would suggest that women are not on the same level as their male colleagues, preventing their career progression and opportunities. 

Currently, there are limited allocations for menstrual leave within India, occurring in a few states and private companies. The states of Bihar and Odisha, for example, allocate 2 days per month exclusively for government employees, and Kerala grants 2 days for university staff or trainers in industrial institutes. Notably, the southern state of Karnataka granted menstrual leave for its female workers in the government and private sector, offering one day of leave per month. This has a minimal reach; over 6 million women are excluded from this as just 350,000-400,000 women are employed in the private or government sector and most women in Karnataka are domestic workers. Coupled with the sporadic reach of Bihar, Odisha and Kerala’s offers of menstruation leave, the state of period equity in India is clearly still extremely circumscribed – but why is this so?

An answer may lie in the cultural and religious beliefs which surround periods in India. Menstruation has commonly been interpreted as a 'pollutant': an unclean force which causes women and girls to become contaminated. Indian women have faced barriers in their daily lives whilst menstruating – from being isolated in the home, restricted from entering the kitchen or the temple and touching the deities. Despite protests against the latter – such as in Kerala in 2018 against the ban on menstruating female devotees entering the Sabarimala temple – the journey toward undermining such beliefs has been slow.

The taboo of the period has led to the virtual banishment of women and girls from multiple spaces. It is perpetuated by a strong shame culture which can make conversations about periods difficult. The pervasiveness of shame and the silence which ensues surrounding menstruation is a prominent barrier to greater education about the subject. Awareness about safe and sanitary methods of dealing with a period can be simultaneously helpful and empowering for women and girls who have lacked the accessibility to such information in their schooling or upbringing. 

This is not to say that there are absolutely no schemes to make menstruation more visible within areas of Indian society. Earlier this year, Justices SB Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan of the Supreme Court recognised the right to menstrual hygiene under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution; the right to life and personal liberty. The Supreme Court issued directives for pro-period equity provisions in schools: such as biodegradable sanitary napkins, spare uniforms and gender-segregated toilets. 

Whilst this is certainly a necessary step in the direction of period visibility, it begs the question as to whether provisions like these will make significant contributions to the dismantling of negative beliefs and stereotypes which surround menstruation in India. After all, the rejection for nationwide menstrual leave was done so on the basis that women would not be taken seriously if they took it, suggesting that periods continue to cast harmful associations upon women and girls and that it continues to be a shunned topic.

There are larger and more institutional hurdles that need to be crossed in the battle for period equity in India. Education which challenges incorrect beliefs of menstruation – through the school curriculum, within women’s spaces in urban and rural settlements – may be the most powerful tool that can be used to do so. India is certainly making the right moves in their added protections within the classroom, and within some states for their working women. But if a conversation about periods cannot happen, and the taboo surrounding menstruating women and girls are perpetuated in religious, political and domestic spaces, it is exceedingly difficult to deconstruct the fixed stereotypes and assumptions which resist such important change. Equity for menstruating women and girls will only begin in full force when the period is a frequently conversed topic.

Image: Flickr/Eric Vernier

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