Women are truly a gift of God as they have the ability to give birth to a child and to grow it in their own bodies. In this process there are various biological activities which take place in the women’s body and before the birth also a lot of things happen and function for the smooth functioning during the pregnancy period. But in the whole process the most important cycle which is in the entire reproductive process is Menstruation.
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The Significance of Menstruation
Menstruation is basically the period which involves normal vaginal bleeding on a monthly basis. It is a totally unnatural process that occurs within a woman’s body and is very much essential to give birth. Menstrual cycle starts when a girl hits puberty and starts from the age of 13 to 16 years it basically occurs to prepare the women’s body for pregnancy.
During the menstrual cycle the women’s uterus develops a lining to hold the child in the womb but if there is no sexual intercourse then this lining and blood gets away from the uterus and comes out of the women’s body as menstrual blood. And after eating at a certain age the Menopause takes place in which the menstrual cycle stops.
Therefore it is a very natural and god given process over which we do not have any hold and it should be considered a pious process and should not be considered a shame or a Taboo which is considered in our Indian society.
Challenges During Menstruation
During this menstruation period women suffer a lot of pain and various other things like mood swings, irritation , frustration and even in some reports it has been said that the menstrual pain is equivalent to the pain one suffers from a heart attack. But it entirely depends from person to person there could be some women who do not at all feel the pain or cramps during menstruation but many are there who faint due to menstrual pain and some are even hospitalized.
After understanding the whole process of menstruation and its effects we need to focus on another aspect related to it and that is period leaves.
Period and Menstrual leaves
As you talked about the pain that the women have to face during their menstrual cycle. Now we need to talk about the working women of a country. They both face menstrual pain and suffer a lot but they are not given leave from their work during periods. Like men they have to work but have to suffer the pain which the men are not given the chance to by God.
Sometimes this pain is unbearable because of which women are not able to put up their full potential and in many cases they have to take leave and in some cases they have to leave the job too. So this has come to be a very major issue or barrier in the lives of women even though it is a natural and beautiful process.
This matter can somehow be resolved by providing menstrual leaves to the women rather than just neglecting them and causing disparity in the society. But the Indian government is not ready to provide a National level policy in context to the menstrual leaves.
On the other hand various Asian countries like Indonesia, South Korea, Japan etc have provided menstrual leads to their women. But India is not ready to do so. Recently Spain became the first European country to provide paid menstrual leaves to the women of their country.
Exploring the Varied Landscape of Menstrual Leave Policies in India
Some States have tried to work in this direction like in Bihar during the Lalu Yadav government the government initiated the menstrual leaves for women full stop in Kerala a school has been providing menstrual leaves for the girls studying in there since 1912, many companies like Zomato byju’s have else also started providing menstrual leaves to their women employees but there is a lack of a nation wide policy in this regard.
At times bills were presented in the parliament about this but all of them got rejected at the end. And in the recent time in a parliament debate the minister of women and child development Smriti Irani rejected the idea of menstrual leaves and compared it with handicaps which gained a lot of Criticism from the people around the country. And she also stated that it’s her personal opinion. People criticized her statement on the grounds that menstrual pain cannot be compared to a handicap pain.
Unraveling the Menstruation Taboo and its Societal Double Standards
More than that we need to analyze that menstruation is considered a shame or a Taboo and in many areas of a country people can’t talk freely about it so if will will not talk about it then how could we find a solution to this problem a women is considered to be impure if she is going through her period cycle she is not allowed to go to the kitchen go to the temple in many cases but on the other hand there are temples like Kamakhya Devi temple of Assam where fertility goddess is worshiped this definitely shows the double standards of a society and the superiority of men and the role of patriarchy in our society.
We are not aware about the scientific reasons if something is being denied all though we attach it to the religious beliefs or the rituals and therefore it loses its essence and authenticity full stop and these things are mainly done to benefit the male population.
Impacts on Women’s Opportunities and Well-being in the Workplace
The social cultural norms have literally affected the women and their working in the society. Firstly they are not considered to be equal as men and therefore they don’t get those opportunities to represent them self and take up the decisions of what is right and what is wrong for them.
After all this is they collect the ability to stand up for themselves problems like discrimination in workplace non women friendly places play their role. And menstrual leave is also one of those problems because when we men face all the pain they are compelled to take leaves which are unpaid and after that because of the menstrual pain their performance degrades and their four in many offices and organizations women are not given the jobs.
As they are considered to be incompetent and therefore men are considered to be the right candidate for the particular job and work. And if they are selected for the jobs then the conditions are not favorable for them like absence of hygienic toilets, pad machines, regulated supply of water etc and all these things were in the situation of women. If proper facilities won’t be provided then women won’t be able to show up the capabilities they have and can definitely prove that they are as competent as men.
Advocating for Menstrual Leave in India: A Step Towards Workplace Equality and Well-being
So there is a definite need for menstrual leave in India as then only women will be able to get a level playing field in their workplace. As after reading the article till now we are very much clear that menstrual pain is a real thing and it definitely differs from person to person so if a person is in the need of a leave due to period cramps then she must be given that chance and things need to be regulated that way.
As it is a very natural process and should be respected for it rather than considering it to be a way to discriminate against women or to criticize them for it. And to not consider it the same we need to work in certain areas like we need to spread awareness among people regarding menstrual health and its importance and the scientific Logic and reasons behind such a process.
After that we need to education people around us and make it a part of our conversations as a few months pack a news about a brother who killed her sister after seeing the menstrual blood and considering it to be due to the sexual intercourse with someone is an appropriate example of the lack of education which are society has. And therefore this issue needs to be addressed. And after that most importantly menstrual leaves need to be part of our policy system in India.
Conclusion
One needs to first understand and learn about menstruation as most of our population is not at all comfortable to talk about this topic and knowing about it is a long process. But we need to know this process by making it a normal and obvious thing to happen to a woman and should not attach shame to it.
If we will take initiative like these and try to provide menstrual leaves to women then it would definitely help in boosting their confidence and working with their full potential on menstruation free days. And if we see on the negative side of the menstrual leaves we can consider that they can be misused by the women who do not suffer the same level of pain that others suffer but because of that we cannot neglect the ones who suffer from it severely.
