This winter session, Menstruation bill tabled as a private member bill in the Parliament which seeks to provide two days of paid menstrual leave every month, for Both, the women working in private sectors and the public sectors.
The female students of class 8th and above are also getting benifitted in government recognised schools. The bill also contributes to arrange better facilities for rest at the workplace and facilitate sanitary napkins during menstruation. Since a Mumbai based company implemented the policy in their organisation, The debate about the first-Day-Of-Period leave has been going around for long now.
When most of the women and feminists were celebrating it and jumping with joy as they expected the similar policies to be applied at their workplaces, Journalist Barkha Dutt wrote in her article in Washington Post, titled ” I am a feminist. Giving women a day off for their period is a stupid idea.” She argued that this policy is useless because, “Our periods can be annoyingly uncomfortable and often painful, but this reality usually demands no more than a Tylenol or Meftal and, if needed, a hot-water bottle.” 
While many disagreed with her, but Author Shobha De supported her and said to OneIndia, “I agree with Barkha. I certainly don’t want women to be treated like sick people. Periods are a part of a woman’s life. They must be accepted. But granting leave is counterproductive to the overall cause of women,”
According to De, such steps would further make a divide between women and men, “Periods are not a sickness! As a national level athlete myself, I didn’t let periods stop me from competing and winning. Neither did I ever skip a day’s work because of period cramps. Let’s not create further alienation because of this issue. It will bolster prejudice and hamper career women from getting ahead,” she added.
Apart of all the debates going on around the world, the fact is that the Half the human menstruates for decades at a time, and yet periods have long been one of the most ignored equality issues around the globe, affecting a women from everything from education to career opportunities to health. According to a research University College London published earlier this year, period pain can be as “bad as having a heart attack”. Given the biological complexity of women and the intense pain they have to suffer, they should have the right to avail leave during menstruation.
So this critical issue was taken up after long and wide-ranging consultations from people in Arunachal East – the constituency which one of the authors represents in the Lok Sabha.
A few interactions with students were arranged from Delhi University, RGU, etc. on the draft of Bill, and We got positive responses from most people, especially girls and women. Therefore, we decided to go ahead and introduce the proposed legislation. The Bill intends to provide relief to women who are troubled during menstrual periods and have no special facilities for rest on such days. In our own country, the state of Bihar has had special leave for women for two days since 1992 (although it is not explicitly referred to as the menstruation leave). As this bill is a private member’s Bill, the chances of it being passed are less. However, the idea behind introducing it is to have a discussion and debate on this issue. Therefore, Parliament should take up the issue of menstrual leave in the next session and hold a deep discussion on it.
