We live in the 21st century, yet discussing menstruation is still considered taboo in India. Regardless of the regular period awareness and different education campaigns over the years, the work culture and the perspective towards periods in the corporate world are not helping to be mindful regarding period sensitivity. Therefore, having an open discussion about menstrual leave in India is still controversial and challenging.

For instance, recently, a female civil servant’s response to a schoolgirl’s request was rather repellent. This occurred at a recent workshop in the eastern part of Bihar, which UNICEF organized. At the event, a girl asked Harjot Kaur Bhamra, a senior official, whether the government could provide sanitary pads for free or, if possible, at a minimal cost of Rs. 20 to 30. The official responded, “Why do you need to take everything from the government?” she said. “This way of thinking needs to change. Do it yourself.”

We need empowered people to voice out and make space for more empowering subject matters like Period leaves in Indian companies. 20 percent of women have symptoms like cramping, nausea, etc., that are serious enough to interfere with daily activities, according to the Clinical Evidence Handbook.

In 2018 India introduced the Menstruation Benefits bill in the parliament, which stated that companies must provide a leave of at least the first two days every month. But the bill is still to be passed. In 1992 Lalu Prasad introduced Menstrual leave for women employees all over Bihar as a mandatory rule.

Also Read: Maternity Leave in India 2022: Laws, Importance Benefits

The Menstruation Benefits Bill, 2017

Shri Ninong Ering, a Member of Parliament, was the first who establish The Menstrual Benefit Bill in 2017. The bill was put forward with the motive to clear the way for women, a period law in Indian companies that benefit women in the workplace and education institutions. This bill was again represented in 2022 on the first day of the Budget Session, but the Legislative Assembly disregarded it as it was an ‘unclean’ topic.

Need of the Bill

This bill is currently the need of the hour; it was introduced in the parliament after understanding the severe complexities of the female biological system and the physical pain they go through when they are on their periods. In 2017, research by University College London revealed that the amount of pain a female goes through while menstruating is equivalent to the pain a person experiences during a heart attack. The pain also reduces an employee’s productivity, which affects their work.

Which Company Gives Period Leave in India?

Various companies, like Dwight, Swiggy, Zomato, etc., provide menstrual leave to their employees. However, many still do not understand the difficulties a woman goes through while experiencing the menstrual cycle. But the recent developments have helped many companies understand period-related problems; therefore, the recent steps taken by certain companies are somewhat plausible.

India isn’t the first country that has introduced Period leave or granted time off to their female staff. Countries like Japan, South Korea, as well as Italy have made it mandatory to give menstrual leave to all their women employees, which is a part of their policy. We can see similar actions in India and companies following the similar footsteps.

Here is the list of companies that give Period leave in India:

9 Companies Offer Menstrual Leave in India For Their Employees

1. iVIPANAN
2. Zomato
3. Byju’s
4. Swiggy
5. Mathrubhumi
6. Magzter
7. IndustryARC
8. FlyMyBiz
9. Gozoop

Various companies in India provide menstrual leaves. The top 9 organizations to adopt the policy of menstrual leaves in India for their employees are below

1. iVIPANAN

iVIPANAN is a Digital Marketing Services provider. They are a ‘People First policy’ company. Also, the company provides two days of paid menstrual leave to its female employees. The company came up with this policy after getting inspiration from Zomato. They announced the Period leave in India policy on 9th August 2020, I.e., a day after they learned about Zomato’s period policy on 8th August 2020.

IVIPANAN is a female-centric firm with its majority of employees as females. The company is very concerned about all the pain a woman goes through during her period week. They do not intend to increase a women’s labor by calling them to the office on menstrual days. Hence, 12 leaves annually are provided to the female members of the organization.

2. Zomato

Zomato, a food delivery company, is based out of Gurugram. More than 5,000 employees are currently working in Zomato. It is one of the leading and trustworthy organizations. Zomato has an internal policy that permits its female staff to have ten days’ leave every year; these menstrual leave are paid leaves. According to the company owner, if the women employees are well rested, they would work with 10x more motivation.

The CEO of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal, announced the menstrual leaves through an email. He mentioned in the mail that – ‘Women should not have any stigma or shame associated with the leave period.’ He further boosted the morale of women by saying that they should feel utterly okay while applying for Period leaves through emails.

3. Byju’s

Byju’s is one of the leading Edtech startups in India. Women working with them can take 12 PELs – Period Leaves every year. According to a blog published by Byju’s website, a female staff member will get the credit for one menstrual leave every month. In addition, female employees can now take a holiday for the entire day or choose to get two half-day leaves every month.

4. Swiggy

Swiggy is one of the most reliable online food delivery companies. For all its female employees, the leave policy has been revised. According to the latest revision, all-female workers can get two days’ leave every month. Many women in India don’t prefer to take the delivery job for numerous reasons. Menstrual pain and irritation caused while driving the vehicle might give them second thoughts about the job but these situations are better understood by women. The Vice President of Swiggy, Mihir Shah, declared that all those women could get the minimum monetary amount during their paid menstrual leaves.

5. Mathrubhumi

Mathrubhumi is a Malayalam media organization. The company created the Period leave policy for their women employees after 2017. Their policies mentioned that the female staff could work from home or take a full day of her menstruation. The top Human Resource Management team was extremely surprised by the menstruation leave policy adopted by several companies. It made them realize the pain the female employees go through during their periods, and they thought of bringing such a policy. MV Shreyams Kumar is the managing director of Mathrubhumi. He notified ‘The Times Of India’ that giving menstrual leaves to the women employees is not a sign of sympathy towards them. But, instead, it’s a sign of understanding women.

6. Magzter

Magzter is a digital magazine platform company that is based out of Chennai. The company revised its existing policy and adopted new effective measures for women in July 2017. It permits women to take a day off every month. The leave can be taken for her first day or second day of periods. The CEO of Magzter, Girish Ramdas, said, “In a company, females suffer a lot by hiding their monthly menstruation from male employees. Due to periods being taboo, they cannot openly discuss the topic and its pain. The CEO wants to remove all the ill mentalities, shame, and fear linked to menstruation. He desires for every woman to have the power to speak for herself and take a day off without compromising on her health.

7. IndustryARC

IndustryARC is a research & strategic consulting startup company based in Hyderabad city. Also, the company added to its existing policy with the other menstrual leaves. It authorizes all female employees to take one or two days’ monthly paid period leaves. The menstrual policy, nonetheless, has some additional terms attached to it. It said that women staff are fully responsible for reimbursing these leaves. They can do so by completing the missed work on the other days of the month to compensate for the loss. The company CEO, Chaitanya Kumar, said his company is fair with male and female employees. Their primary focus is planning as well as implementing equal growth opportunities for every employee.

8. FlyMyBiz

FlyMyBiz is a digital media company that’s based out of Kolkata. They deeply felt the pain a woman goes through during her menstrual week. So they decided to enrich their policies by giving female employees a paid leave period. The leave policy got declared in the last month & the last week of 2018. FlyMyBiz CEO Samyo Datta mentioned in one of his speeches that – “Women employees of his company are eligible for one extra leave per month starting from January 2019. That comes to around 12 other paid leaves apart from their existing leaves.

9. Gozoop

Gozoop is a digital marketing organization. It is the first organization in India to design and implement menstrual leave in India. It permits all the women staff to benefit from one paid leave every month. Moreover this leave is applicable when the woman is on her first menstrual cycle. A digital entertainment machine named Culture Machine from Mumbai introduced and also, implemented the menstrual leave policy. It was after this that Gozoop adopted the same approach in their structure.

StartupHR Toolkit has a period leave policy for its female employees. This Toolkit is well designed through SutraHR, which has put all their last expertise. Also, It provides the Toolkit containing the HR Documents “ready-to-use” in various HR process phases. The employees’ health is way more important than coming to the office and working. Therefore, our police strive to provide decent advantages related to women’s health.

The Argument For Menstrual Leave in India

The subject of Menstrual Leave in India is an endless topic of debate.

Corporates need to realize that providing menstrual leave does not indicate a productivity loss from the women’s end. Also, menstrual leave leads to various benefits for women all in one. If she feels good inside, then obviously, after one day of her menstruation leave, she will feel fresh to start her work. Many firms allow women to get the “work from home” facility for their menstrual period.

Due to the covid-19 crisis, it has been significantly adopted by numerous firms in India. She gets a flexible structure and starts to work at her comfortable timings mid-day. She can be on leave for the entire day if she has terrible period cramps. The argument here points towards only one answer, i.e., the woman will feel more free, respectful, and motivated to work once she is well. Henceforth productivity significantly increases with such measures rather than decreasing.

There should be extraordinary women support groups to create awareness across the organizations. Also, It includes the basic discussion pointers about how to normalize menstruation, stop hiding from it, and why the menstrual leave in India should occur. Positive changes in society come from the right mindset of people. First, we need to teach proper menstruation in our society’s roots. Then, the open room discussions on menstrual pain, cramps, and their ill effects should occur. All men, women, children regardless of age, country, caste should be a part of such discussion. Gone were the days when women used to hide having periods and speaking openly in such areas of their life. Now, with no shame, we all have to join our hands and bring the much-needed change to our conventional societal norms.

Men should normalize menstruation, and extra leaves should not be seen as gender discrimination. It’s high time people act educated not just by gaining degrees but by implementing the right policies to support more and more women employees. It’s not a goal of one organization, but the entire society needs to come forward and raise its voice over this subject.

Every woman employee is working on whether the private organizations, public organizations or start-ups hold the right to get the menstrual leaves. No work gets accomplished by compromising somebody’s health! We all are humans before business workers, after all. Help the women by showing such small gestures of concern. It will bring extraordinary changes ahead.