In a recent statement, Union Cabinet Minister for Women and Child Development Smriti Irani sparked a debate by expressing her views on the concept of menstrual cycle leave for women. According to her statement, women’s menstrual cycle is not a “handicap” situation and hence does not require a paid leave.
This statement was made by her on December 13, 2023, at the Rajya Sabha when RJD MP Manjo Kumar Jha questioned whether the government was thinking about providing a law that is associated with menstrual leave or not. To the question, Smriti answered that women having menstrual should not be considered handicapped and should be provided with the same opportunities as men when it comes to working in the private or government sectors. She also stated that just because people, i.e., men who do not menstruate, have different opinions on this natural cycle, women must not be treated discriminately.
According to her statement, menstruation is a natural phenomenon in a woman’s life, and she herself goes through it. She also wrote an answer to the question of Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who asked a relevant question on 8th December at the Lok Sabha. As per the written reply, She stated that mensuration is a psychological phenomenon that every woman or girl goes through. However, in very rare cases, the condition of dysmenorrhea occurs when women are in severe pain during those days and are unable to do any work. She also states that all the other women have manageable conditions and they can continue to go out and work after having pain relievers or other relevant medicines.
To answer the question of whether there are any talks about passing the law regarding this menstrual scenario, she says that, as of now, there are no talks about it going on in the Office of Women and child Development. The workplace rules and regulations will continue to be as they are in businesses and companies without the introduction of mandatory menstrual leave.
This is not the first time the tissue has been raised in both Lok and Rajya Sabha, as this also took place in 2017 by the Congress MP from Arunachal Pradesh, who was a member during those days. This happened because of the Menstrual Benefits Bill 2017 which was introduced by Ninong Ering in which it stated that every working woman will get leave for four days during the occurrence of menstrual cycle.
Another bill came into existence by the name of Menstrual Hygiene and Paid Leave Bill 2019, was introduced by the Congress MP, M S Jothimani, from Tamil Nadu, who stated that women should be allowed a paid leave of absence for three days from the workplace.
There were many other bills that were passed during the past years for the welfare of women and girls’ children by the health ministry of the country. However, all the bills that were introduced and passed were private members’ Bills and not by someone from the House but not a minister. It is said that these bills were very hard to propose in the legislative sessions and discussions due to several reasons.
After that, this issue was never raised until the recent Lok and Rajya Sabha session. The MP of Tamil Nadu, Shashi Tharoor, started this conversation on menstrual leave two years ago but was opposed by the other ministers. He started the petition on this matter but to no avail, as everyone wanted women to have equal opportunities, and hence, it was concluded that they wouldn’t be offered paid menstrual leave.
