Are you planning to join an organization providing Menstrual Leave in India? Well, welcome to the harsh reality of India! Talking about periods openly and discussing their sensitivity is still considered unimportant. Even with the years of heightened period awareness through blogs, increased education, social communities, and other modes of media, companies established in India are still lagging back. We have failed massively to understand how these worst cramps through the menstrual cycle cause the deadliest pain ever. No wonder most of the corporations in India are dominated by men, so how would they even understand such sensitive topics? It’s leading to no good but evolving the silent sufferers. Women prefer to stay quiet and come to work instead of speaking up for their right to get period leave in India. The primary reason behind not speaking up is the threat of losing their jobs in the male-dominated corporate world.

According to the Endometriosis Society India, it is revealed that – “Almost 25 million women worldwide have the endometriosis illness. This illness leads to the worst period of pain. The pain gets so unbearable sometimes leading to the death of women.”

One other research done by the Clinical Evidence Handbook states that – “Almost 20 percent of women experience terrible symptoms during their periods. Also, It includes nausea, mood swings, depression, cramps, etc. All such results in the hindrance of performing the regular activities.”

Our Indian legislative system has taken much time in welcoming the period leave policies in the organizations. However, In India, only Bihar is the leading state where all the corporations give menstrual leave to their women employees. This practice has been happening from 1992 to date. The Human Resources guidelines are stringent and treat women with all respect. The leading countries like Italy, Japan, and South Korea are already following menstrual-friendly policies for their women employees. It promises to provide monthly leave to its women staff.

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

The Menstruation Benefits Bill, 2017

Several bills have been passed for women’s overall welfare to date. The much-needed Bill’ The Menstruation Benefits Bill, 2017′ finally passed late in 2017. It was introduced in India by Ninong Ering. The bill states that all women are privileged for getting monthly Menstrual Leave in India of two days. In total, it comes to 24 days of menstrual leaves yearly. The bill is made for women working in public and private organizations. These firms are registered with either the Central governments or the state governments.

India has the “Menstruation Benefits Bill, 2018” that was approved in the parliament. It prescribes that every woman can have menstrual leave every month for at least two days. Although, some companies like Zomato still give only ten days to 12 days of menstrual leaves annually. Moreover, they are eligible to receive decent rest facilities in their respective offices. Although, the legislative measures are not so strong in the workplace yet. After this, several companies in India have adopted menstrual leave policies in their organization.

Which Company Gives Period Leave in India?

Various companies like Dwight, Swiggy, Zomato, etc., provide menstrual leave to their female employees. Unfortunately, many Indian men in our society have failed to understand the soul-killing period’s pain! If they understood, India would have developed a lot of a broad mentality. Unfortunately, while purchasing pads from the local shopkeepers, they give a strange look & wrap it in a piece of paper as if it’s a big mysterial secret. The problem lies with the mindset, not women. and also, thanks to social media, many women support organizations, blogs, and media have started creating awareness of menstrual-related issues.

After years of endless debating, various organizations have considered this menstrual issue; after accepting how critical a woman’s situation gets on her menstrual week, various Indian organizations are coming forward with the monthly paid leaves for female staff. Apart from India, other countries like Italy, Japan, and South Korea have mandated menstrual leave for every woman employee. Thanks to such countries for creating a border mindset in India as well. Hence, many firms in India follow these nations’ footsteps and bring a much-needed change. As a result, the female staff can have one or two days of Menstrual 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. 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. IVIPANAN 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 did not intend to increase 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 have been working in Zomato to date. It is one of the leading and trustworthy organizations. Zomato has an internal policy that permits its female staff to avail of ten days’ leave every year. These menstrual leave are paid, and no money shall be deducted for taking this. According to the company owner, the rest period will allow women employees to work with 10x more motivation.

The CEO of Zomato, Deepinder Goyal, announced about 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 one of the blogs published on Byju’s website, a female staff will get the credit of 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 make them think to give this job a second thought. The CEO declared that none of the women would be asks questions about their two-day leave every month. Their health matters more than anything. 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 came up with 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 undertook during her periods and bring 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 also adopted the new effective measures for women in July 2017. It permits the woman to take her day off every month. The leave should be concerned 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 about their monthly menstruation from male employees. Due to periods’ 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 start-up company based in Hyderabad city. Also, the company added on to their existing policy with the other menstrual leaves. It authorizes all the 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 that his company is fair with male and female employees. Their primary focus lies in planning and 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 went through during her menstrual week. It made them decide to enrich their policies by bringing up a paid period leave for female employees. The leave policy got declared in the last month & the last week of 2018. Nonetheless, the New Year celebration owed to their female staff. FlyMyBiz CEO Samyo Datta mentioned in one of his speeches that – “Women employees of his company are eligible for availing of 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 of India to not only design but also implement the menstrual leave in India. It permits all the women staff to benefit from one paid leave every month. This leave is applicable when the woman is on her first menstrual cycle. A digital entertainment machine named Culture Machine from Mumbai introduced and 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. 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. On the contrary, 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.