Two Indian firms have introduced a policy to give female employees a “period day” off every month. The day can be taken off under “menstrual leave”, launched by Mumbai-based firms Culture Machine and Gozoop in order, they say, to fight taboos around menstruation. Ahmed Aftab Naqvi, CEO of Gozoop, a digital marketing firm for brands such as Dell and Asian Paints, said there were “cultural sensibilities” in India that made it difficult for women to talk about their periods. “Why should our women co-workers have to have these awkward conversations or ask for leave? It should be something that is a given, that’s understood. That’s why we instituted blanket policy for all our 70 women employees,” he said. For New Delhi gynaecologist Dr Anita Nayar, however, the menstrual leave policy is “silly” and “regressive”. For a start, she says the majority of women have no problem with period pains – and for those who do, merely having the first day off may not be enough anyway as their discomfort can last for days. “I don’t see why women can’t openly say, without embarrassment, that they need time off. An automatic policy of one day off a month actually feeds into this whole embarrassment syndrome and keeps it under wraps. I’d rather women openly asked for time off when their periods are painful. That would really open the lid,” she said. Culture Machine, a digital media company with 75 female employees, announced the measure in a YouTube video that shows its female workers describing how they struggle to work during their periods through cramps and nausea, and battle the feeling that they are “going to die soon”. It shows their faces lighting up on being told they will get the first day off. In the video, Devleena S Majumdar, Culture Machine’s head of HR, says: “We felt it was time we face reality. This is not an embarrassment, this is a part of life.” She has been stunned at the positive reaction. The video has received more than 1.4m hits. “We have to break the taboo. I know that some critics have said that women will be embarrassed, when they take this day off, at telling the whole world they have started their period. But when you get pregnant and apply for maternity leave, you aren’t embarrassed so why would women be embarrassed about menstrual leave?” she asked. Periods are taboo in India, not just in polite circles but everywhere. Menstruating girls and women are considered impure and banned from entering temples or cooking food in their own homes. Even in educated, middle-class homes, girls have to wash their clothes separately. They cannot touch pickles or poppadoms because they will go “bad”. Herbs will shrivel up as they approach, they are told. The insensitivity towards menstruation affects education. A report on sanitation last year by the Dasra foundation found that 23% of girls in India drop out of school when their periods begin because of the lack of a private toilet. The subject is shrouded in so much shame and stigma that girls often go to insane lengths to hide their periods. Aditi Gupta, co-founder of Menstrupedia, a website that dispels myths and educates young women, said she had visited a rural school and met a girl who, through mind-boggling ingenuity, had managed to hide her “secret” from her parents for a whole year. Gupta welcomes the menstrual leave policy. “We need to break the silence around the subject. This menstrual leave policy is a way of breaking these taboos and it’s a step in the right direction. Women can take a day off without having to explain and without being judged or branded as less efficient,” said Gupta. It’s only when superstitions around menstruation are smashed, she said, that the custom of isolating menstruating women and girls will end. This month, a teenage girl in Nepal died after she was confined to a cowshed and bitten by a snake. Tulasi Shahi, 19, had been banished to the shed and forced to sleep alone. The practice of sequestering women in cattle sheds for the duration of their periods is also common in many parts of India. Culture Machine CEO, Sameer Pitalwalla, is unmoved by criticism of the policy. “We are a country that can’t say the word ‘period’,” he said, adding that it did not mean women have to stay at home. The menstrual leave was optional, for those who needed it.
Indian companies Culture Machine and Gozoop are giving female workers a “period day” of leave each month in an attempt to tackle taboos around menstruation. The move is part of the government’s efforts to promote gender equality by making it easier for women to work outside their homes after having children. Last year, a report by the Dasra foundation revealed that 23% of girls in the country leave school once they begin menstruating due to the lack of private toilet facilities.